So sleeping well at the forties was the key to braking the aging of the brain? This is in any case what a study published in the journal reveals Neurology. According to the researchers, a poor quality sleep at the age of 40 would age the 3 -year -old brain. To achieve this conclusion, the researchers followed a group of 589 participants, aged on average 40 years. They fulfilled a questionnaire on the quality of their sleep at the start of the study, then again five years later.
Disturbed sleep: a key factor in brain aging
The study identified six indicative signs of a disturbed sleep: sleep little, poor quality of sleep, difficulty finding sleep, frequent awakenings during the night, alarm clock too early in the morning and diurnal fatigue. Participants were classified into three groups according to the number of disorders they presented: one or less for 70 %of them, between two and three for 22 %, and four or more troubles for 8 %. Fifteen years after the start of the study, the participants had a brain MRI. From the images, the researchers used artificial intelligence to estimate the biological age of the brain of each.
After taking into account various elements such as age, sex, hypertension or even diabetes, researchers observed that individuals with two to three sleep disorders had a brain appearing on average 1.6 years older than those sleeping well. In people combining four or more troubles, this difference reached 2.6 years. Clémence Cavaillès, author of the study, recalls that “Sleep disorders have already been associated with a decline in cognitive functions and memory with age, thus increasing the risk of developing dementia.” She adds that their research, based on the analysis of brain scanners, shows that a poor quality sleep could accelerate the three -year cerebral aging, from his forties.
Sleep: 4 disorders strongly associated with premature aging of the brain
The results of the study revealed that certain difficulties, including non -restful sleep, sleeping problems, frequent awakenings during the night and too early alarm clock, were particularly linked to accelerated brain aging – especially in people who presented these four disorders persistently over a period of five years.
In a press release, DRE Kristine Yaffe, from the University of California in San Francisco, insists on the importance of taking care of sleep disorders from the start of adulthood to protect its brain health. In particular, it recommends adopting regular sleep habits, practicing physical activity, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bedtime, and resorting to relaxation techniques. The team now plans to direct its next research to new strategies to improve the quality of sleep, while exploring the long -term effects of sleep on the brain health of young adults.