New study
In fact, more than 7 hours of sleep can be detrimental to this age group
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From an early age we were drummed into the idea that eight hours is the optimal amount of sleep. There are phases of life in which we need significantly less, as a study has now shown.
Numerous studies have shown how important healthy and, above all, sufficient sleep is for our health. Because if we sleep too little and our night’s sleep is of poor quality – for example because we wake up often or have bad dreams – we age faster and weaken our cardiovascular system. How long we have to snooze every day to feel fit and rested varies greatly. For most adults, however, the optimal duration is somewhere between six and nine hours.
In a new one study Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge in England and Fudan in China have now investigated how much sleep is really beneficial for health. To do this, they analyzed data from almost 500,000 people between the ages of 38 and 73. The test persons were asked about their sleeping habits, their mental health and their general well-being. In addition, they conducted several cognitive tests, and the researchers also had neuroimaging data, i.e. digital images of the nervous system, as well as genetic information from 40,000 of the participants.
In middle age, 7 hours of sleep is optimal for us
The result of the study is that both too little – and this is perhaps surprising – and too much sleep can apparently impair cognitive performance. Seven hours seems just right for people in their late 30s to early 70s. For example, those who slept significantly more than seven hours a night suffered more from depression and anxiety and had shorter attention spans.
The researchers explain this connection between sleep duration and brain performance with the interruption of deep sleep. So if you sleep for more than seven hours but suffer from poor sleep quality – for example due to frequent waking up – you cannot compensate for the negative consequences for the brain with the long sleep duration.
Quality over quantity also applies to sleep
“A good night’s sleep is important at all stages of life,” said Prof. Barbara Sahakin, a neuropsychologist from the University of Cambridge and co-author of the large sleep study. “But especially as we age. Improving sleep quality can be crucial for older people to stay mentally healthy and reduce cognitive decline.”
You know best how much rest you need every night to feel fit and rested. But if you feel like you need a lot of sleep during middle age, you might want to see if the problem is less of an issue is due to the duration of sleep rather than the quality.
Sources used: cam.ac.uk, zeit.de