Study links common sleep behaviors to signs of brain aging

All five behaviors were initially associated with greater lesion volume. But after the researchers accounted for related blood vessel health and lifestyle factors that can also affect the brain, such as high blood pressure, smoking and physical inactivity, three behaviors continued to stand out: sleeping outside the recommended range, frequent daytime napping and greater sleeplessness. Snoring and unintentional daytime dozing did not.

The findings on daytime napping were particularly interesting, since research shows short naps may also be helpful for alertness and cognition. Gene Alexander, the study's senior author and a professor in the Department of Psychology, said that the questionnaire did not capture details on the length or timing of individual naps. Future work will need to test whether shorter, occasional naps have different effects on the brain over time compared to longer, more frequent ones.

In a follow-up analysis, the researchers took a closer look at sleep duration and found that participants sleeping fewer than seven hours per night had increased lesion volume compared to those sleeping within the recommended range.

"Our findings suggest that having too little sleep may lead to greater white matter lesion volumes in the brain as we age," said Alexander. "We didn't see greater white matter impacts in people who reported longer sleep durations, but this needs to be followed up in cohorts with more long sleepers."

Source:

University of Arizona

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