Sleep Problems In Middle Ages, The Effect Can Accelerate The Aging Process

Illustration of sleep problems (Pexels)

JAKARTA - Sleep problems can have an impact on the health of the body. Especially in middle-aged people, the effect can affect the acceleration of brain aging in the next ten years.

According to the results of poor sleep quality studies in the 40s, the brain can age faster.

"sleeping problems have been attributed to previous research with bad thinking skills and memory at a later date, making people at higher risk of developing dementia," said C waymence CavaillEEs of the University of California San Francisco as quoted by Antara.

"Our study, which uses brain scans to determine the brain age of participants, shows poor sleep quality associated with nearly three years of additional brain aging since middle age," he said.

The researchers in their study evaluated the sleep patterns of 589 participants aged on average 40 years using questionnaires at the beginning of the study and five years later.

Kuesioner evaluates participants based on six sleep problems, namely difficulty sleeping, waking up in the middle of the night, waking up too early, short sleep duration, poor sleep quality, and sleepiness during the day.

After 15 years, the researchers conducted brain scans to evaluate brain shrinkage of research participants.

Based on the results of the study, participants were divided into three groups according to the quality of their sleep. Low groups have only one sleep problem and cover 70 percent of research participants.

Middle groups that have two to three sleep problems include 22 percent of participants, while high groups with more than three characteristics of poor sleep include 8 percent of participants.

After analyzing brain scans with a sleep pattern, the researchers found that research participants in the middle class of their brain were on average 1.6 years older than participants in the low group.

Participants of research in the high brain age group are on average 2.6 years older than participants in the low group.

Of the six bad sleep characteristics studied, poor sleep quality, sleep difficulty, difficulty staying asleep, and waking up too early are related to older brain age.

This link is mainly seen in research participants who have experienced sleep problems consistently for more than five years.

"Our findings highlight the importance of overcoming sleep problems from an early age to maintain brain health, including maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, exercising, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bed, and using relaxation techniques," said Dr. Kristine Yaffe, study author of the University of California San Francisco.