Sleep is a small part of our daily chorus but it can have an impact on you in various ways, especially on people in their 30s and 40s, a new study found. New research suggests that individuals experiencing disrupted sleep in their 30s and 40s might be more prone to memory and thinking issues a decade later, according to a study published in Neurology.
Although the study doesn’t establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between sleep quality and cognitive decline, it highlights a significant association.
Yue Leng, the study author from the University of California, San Francisco, emphasized the importance of understanding the link between sleep and cognition earlier in lifeespecially considering that signs of Alzheimer’s disease start appearing in the brain long before symptoms manifest.
How was the study conducted?
The study involved 526 participants with an average age of 40, monitored over an 11-year period. Researchers examined both the duration and quality of participants’ sleep, with an average sleep duration of six hours. Sleep quality was assessed through wrist activity monitors, sleep diaries, and a sleep quality survey.
Nearly 46% of participants reported poor sleep quality, as indicated by a sleep quality survey. Memory and thinking tests were conducted alongside the analysis of sleep fragmentation, measuring repetitive short interruptions during sleep.
Participants were divided into three groups based on their sleep fragmentation scores. Of those with the most disrupted sleep, 44 exhibited poor cognitive performance a decade later, compared to 10 in the group with the least disrupted sleep. Adjusting for various factors, individuals with the most disrupted sleep had over twice the odds of poor cognitive performance compared to those with the least disrupted sleep.
Quality over Quantity
Interestingly, there was no significant difference in cognitive performance at midlife between the group with moderately disrupted sleep and the group with the least disruption. The findings underscore the critical role of sleep quality rather than quantity in cognitive health during middle age.
Yue Leng emphasized the need for more research to explore the relationship between sleep disturbances and cognition at different life stages, identifying potential critical periods when sleep may be more strongly linked to cognitive function. This ongoing research could pave the way for future opportunities in Alzheimer’s disease prevention later in life.
