Want to Preserve Brain Health? Address Sleep Problems: AAN Study

People in early middle age who have poor sleep quality, including having difficulty falling or staying asleep, have more signs of poor brain health in late middle age, according to a study published online in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that poor sleep accelerates brain aging. It only shows an association between poor sleep quality and signs of brain aging.

The study included 589 people with an average age of 40 at the start of the study. Participants completed sleep questionnaires both at the beginning of the study and again five years later. Participants had brain scans 15 years after the study began.

Researchers reviewed participants’ responses to questions such as, “Do you usually have trouble falling asleep?” “Do you usually wake up several times at night?” and “Do you usually wake up far too early?” They recorded the number of six poor sleep characteristics for each participant: short sleep duration, bad sleep quality, difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, early morning awakening and daytime sleepiness.