A new study published in the journal JAMA Neurology suggests that the length of sleep time by adults could play a major role in their brain health, including the prevention of early on-set dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
It is well proven among sleep scientists that poor sleep quality is common among older adults and can lead to changes in cognitive function, including a person’s ability to properly think, reason, problem-solve and make decisions, as well as their memory and attention span.
Researchers used this basis as the jumping-off point for their own study to investigate any association between sleep duration, demographic, lifestyle choices, cognitive function and levels of beta amyloid, a protein found in the brain during normal brain cell activity, according to CNN.
The study found that individuals who reported short sleep duration — defined as six hours or less by researchers — had increased levels of beta amyloid, which “greatly increases” a person’s risk for dementia, said Joe Winer, the study’s lead author from Stanford University.