Sleep Habits Affecting Brain: It is important for a person to get good sleep, but due to many reasons people are not able to get enough sleep at night and sleep during the day. Let us tell you how dangerous this is.

Women Sleep Problems: A recent study has found that women in their 80s who report increased daytime sleepiness may be twice as likely to develop dementia. Although this study does not prove that daytime sleepiness causes dementia, it does show a strong link between the two. Sleep is extremely important for our brain. It gives the brain time to rest and energize, allowing us to think and remember things. But sleep patterns can change with age, and that was the main focus of this study.

About the study

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, led by Dr. Yu Leng. It included 733 women, whose average age was 83 years. These women did not have any memory or thinking problems when the study began. These women were tracked for five years.

Sleep patterns and consequences

By the end of the study, 164 women (22 percent) had mild cognitive impairment and 93 women (13 percent) had dementia. To understand sleep patterns, all participants wore a wrist device for three days that recorded their sleep and day-night routines.

Researchers found that more than half of the women had significant changes in their sleep over five years. They were divided into three groups-

Stable or slightly better sleep (44 percent)

Decrease in nighttime sleep (35 percent)

Increased sleepiness both during the day and at night (21 percent)

Decreased nighttime sleep and increased sleepiness

In the group with declining night sleep, sleep quality and duration decreased. These women took more naps during the day and their sleep-wake routine became abnormal.

In the group with increasing sleep, sleep length increased both during the night and the day, but their sleep rhythm worsened.

Dementia risk

When the researchers looked at the risk of dementia, the group with increasing sleep had the highest risk. 19 percent of women in this group developed dementia, compared to 8 percent in the group with stable sleep patterns and 15 percent in the group with declining nighttime sleep patterns. After accounting for other factors such as age, education, race, diabetes and high blood pressure, the researchers found that women in the group with increasing sleep patterns had twice the risk of developing dementia than those in the group with stable sleep patterns. Interestingly, there was no significant increase in risk in the group with declining nighttime sleep patterns.

Sleep and the health of the elderly

Dr. Leng said that sleep, naps and our body's routine can change a lot even in just five years. Therefore, while studying mental health in the elderly, it is important to pay attention to all aspects of sleep, not just night sleep. Most of the participants included in the study were white, so its results may not apply to all races and groups. More diverse and larger studies are needed in the future.

This research was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Aging. The study has been published in the journal Neurology. This study makes an important contribution to understanding the relationship between day and night sleep and the risk of dementia in elderly women.