Sleep determines the quality of life. If you do not get a good night’s sleep when you are young, you will experience cognitive impairment, such as memory loss, up to 2.6 years sooner as you age. [사진=클립아트코리아]
Insomnia erodes brain health. In particular, young people who are under a lot of stress from work and social life may suffer from cognitive impairment as they age if they do not get a good night’s sleep. According to ‘Medical News Today’, an American health and medical media outlet, there is increasing evidence that there is a close relationship between sleep and brain health.
Recent research results show that if you have poor sleep quality when you are young, your brain ages faster and you are at higher risk of cognitive impairment in old age. People who suffered from sleep disorders in their 30s and 40s were found to have a high risk of memory decline and cognitive impairment in old age.
Adequate sleep helps maintain and improve the brain’s health system and its ability to eliminate waste. Sleep disorders and confusion, such as frequent waking up and falling asleep again at night, can cause memory decline and cognitive impairment, greatly increasing the risk of dementia. According to a new study published in the American Academy of Neurology’s Journal of Neurology, people who have sleep quality problems in early middle age, that is, people who have difficulty falling or staying asleep, are more likely to develop cognitive impairment after late middle age. It appears that more can be experienced.
589 people participated in this study, and the average age at the start of the study was 40 years old. The research team had participants fill out a sleep questionnaire at the beginning of the study and five years later. The research team analyzed these participants by dividing them into three groups according to the degree of ‘sleep deprivation’: low (0 to 1 points), medium (2 to 3 points), and high (3 points or more). Additionally, 15 years after the start of the study, the participants’ brains were scanned and analyzed, and machine learning was used to measure the participants’ brain age.
Research results have shown that various sleep characteristics, including sleep quality, early morning awakening, and difficulty falling asleep or maintaining sleep, are associated with accelerated brain aging. In particular, it was revealed that the acceleration of brain aging was noticeably higher in people who had continued to experience sleep problems for 5 years. It was analyzed that if you do not get enough sleep, your brain ages faster by an average of 1.6 to 2.6 years.
Professor Christine Yaffe (neurology, epidemiology) at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, the lead author of the study, said, “Sleep problems must be resolved from an early age through regular sleep and exercise, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bedtime, and using stress-relieving techniques to keep the brain healthy. “You can maintain normal health,” he said.
Dr. Scott Kaiser, a geriatrician at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California, said, “It is very important to prioritize good sleep in terms of health care. Create a sleep environment where you can sleep well, and create a sleep environment at the same time almost every day. “You have to go to bed and wake up early, and follow various sleep hygiene practices,” he said. Reducing your stress level before going to bed, taking a warm shower or bath, and sleeping in a room with a relatively low temperature can help you get a good night’s sleep. Avoid screen time from late afternoon to evening. It is advisable to avoid looking at screens such as cell phones or TVs and block blue light.
Reporter Kim Young-seop (edwdkim@kormedi.com)
