JAKARTA - Sleeping too short or too long is suspected to be related to faster biological aging processes and increased risk of various diseases. This finding comes from a large-scale international study that analyzed data from nearly half a million people.
The study used data from nearly 500,000 participants in UK Biobank. The results of the analysis showed a consistent pattern: people who regularly sleep less than six hours or more than eight hours each night tend to experience faster signs of biological aging in various organs than those who have a sleep duration in the medium range.
To measure biological aging, the researchers used 'biological ageing clocks', which are artificial intelligence (machine learning) based technologies that estimate a person's biological age based on various biological data, such as brain scans, proteins in the blood, and chemical markers in the body.
The results of the study showed a U-shaped pattern. This means that the group that slept for a moderate duration showed the healthiest biological condition, while those who slept too little or too long experienced greater biological aging acceleration.
The acceleration of aging is seen in various organs, including the brain, lungs, liver, immune system, skin, and metabolic system.
This study also found that short sleep duration is closely related to various disorders in the brain, such as depression and anxiety. These findings are in line with previous studies that show a link between sleep deprivation and mental health.
"This broad pattern of brain-body connections is important because it shows that sleep duration is a very fundamental part of our overall body physiology, with broad impacts on various organs," said Junhao Wen, lead author of the study and Assistant Professor of Radiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, United States, quoted from the Euro News page.
In addition to brain-related disorders, sleep deprivation is also associated with an increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, respiratory disorders such as asthma, to digestive problems such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Meanwhile, sleeping too long is also associated with various health problems. However, researchers assess that in some cases, long sleep duration is likely a sign of an underlying disease, not the direct cause of the health disorder.
"Previous studies have found that sleep is closely related to the aging process and the burden of disease on the brain," said Junhao Wen.
"Our research goes further by showing that too little or too much sleep is associated with faster aging in almost all organs. These findings reinforce that sleep plays an important role in maintaining organ health through coordination between the brain and body, including maintaining a healthy balance of metabolism and the immune system," he added.
However, the researchers stressed that this study cannot prove that sleep duration directly causes accelerated aging. Most data on sleep duration is obtained from participants' own reports, so the accuracy level is not as high as direct sleep measurement using medical devices.
Therefore, further research is needed to determine whether poor sleep quality and duration are indeed the cause of accelerated aging, or are instead influenced by other pre-existing health conditions.
The researchers also encourage further studies using more accurate sleep measurement methods and involving a more diverse population so that the results can provide a more comprehensive picture.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
