Maintaining proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle habits are the two fundamental ingredients to protect the body from disease and age decline. Proper habits also include sleeping the right amount of hours each night. The sleep phase has always fascinated scholars and we too talked about it when we saw how much dreaming could protect brain functions. Today we will deepen the subject and analyze the data of a very recent research on the quantity and quality of sleep. So here’s how much to sleep after 70 to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and keep your brain and memory in good shape according to science. The discovery comes from the United States and opens up important study perspectives on sleep and cognitive ability. Let’s see what it is and if we sleep the right amount of hours.
Here’s how much sleep after age 70 to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and keep your brain and memory in good shape according to science
Sleep is a constant topic of research. Dozens and dozens of scientists have tried to understand what happens to our body and brain when we sleep. And above all, what effects rest has on the brain and more generally on the well-being of the organism.
The latest study, very interesting, comes from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Washington and tries to define the right amount of sleep based on age. The conclusion that leaps to the eye is one: both sleeping little and sleeping too much could speed up cognitive decline.
But let’s go into detail and find out what the right “amount” of sleep is for people over 70.
The study and the results on the “right” amount of sleep
Scientists from the American university analyzed the sleep habits of 100 people close to 75 years of age. Taking the correlation between bad sleep and increased risk of Alzheimer’s as a starting point, they followed them for more than 4 years. And they uncovered some very promising data for studying the issue of cognitive decline.
The patients’ sleep was followed up with an electroencephalogram. A blood sample and a cerebrospinal fluid sample were added to this analysis to check for the presence or absence of Alzheimer’s-related proteins. Well it emerged that the negative effects were concentrated between those who slept less than 4 and a half hours and more than 6 and a half hours.
No problem, however, for those who sleep between 4.5 and 6.5 hours. An extremely interesting research that does not give definitive data, but that opens up considerable spaces for analysis on the degenerative processes of the disease.
The importance of sleep quality
Scientists also agreed on another fact. It is not only the amount of sleep that is important, but also the quality. Not all people have the same rhythms and the same need for sleep and it is how rested we feel that makes the difference. The fact remains (and the scientific community has few doubts about this) that sleeping less than 5 hours could cause various problems. These include the increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and weight problems.
Deepening
If we suffer from insomnia we will never be able to give up these little gadgets that will give us peaceful and peaceful sleep.