New study
That’s why sleeping more than 7 hours can actually harm this age group
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Most people consider sleeping eight hours every night to be optimal. We need less in a certain phase of life and too much sleep can even be harmful for us.
Sufficient and good sleep is fundamentally important for our health. Too little sleep with poor quality makes us age faster and For example, weakens our cardiovascular system. Basically, it depends very much on the individual how much sleep we need at night so that we feel fit and well-rested. For most adults, the sleep requirement is somewhere between six and nine hours.
Researchers from the universities of Cambridge in England and Fudan in China have one study on the subject of sleep and analyzed data from almost 500,000 people between the ages of 38 and 73. Participants were asked about their sleeping habits, mental health and well-being. To do this, they conducted several cognitive tests. There was also neuroimaging data, i.e. digital images of the nervous system and genetic information, from almost 40,000 test subjects.
7 hours of sleep is optimal in middle age
The analysis of the study showed that both too little and too much sleep can lead to impaired cognitive performance. Seven hours seemed to be the optimal time for people in the late 30s to early 70s to be mentally healthy and productive. On average, people who slept significantly less or more than seven hours per night suffered more from depression and anxiety disorders as well as a shorter attention span.
The researchers see the reason for the connection between sleep duration and brain performance in the interruption of deep sleep. Anyone who sleeps significantly longer than seven hours but suffers from poor sleep quality – for example because they wake up frequently – is apparently unable to compensate for the negative consequences for the cognitive performance of the brain.
The quality of sleep seems more important than the duration
“Good sleep is important in all phases of life,” explains Prof. Barbara Sahakin, co-author of the study and neuropsychologist at the University of Cambridge. “But especially as we age. Improving sleep quality can be crucial for older people to stay mentally healthy and reduce cognitive decline.”
How much sleep each individual feels rested and fit is, of course, individual. But anyone in the mid-30s to early 70s who feels like they need a lot of sleep may want to look at whether the problem is less the length of sleep and more the quality of the night’s sleep.
Sources used: cam.ac.uk, zeit.de