This article is extracted from Starhealth, Sunday 15th May 2022
How much of sleep does one needs? This is not an easy question as the need for sleep varies from one person to another. Age also plays a role.
Most of us know from experience that it is hard to get out from bed after a night's out. What's more if it's a workday the next day.
But, according to a new study published in the Nature Aging journal, sleeping more isn't necessary beneficial for those in their middle age or older. Researchers from United Kingdom and China found that seven hours of sleep at night is ideal for middle-age or older people. They also found out that anything lesser or more than 7 hours may lead to impaired mental health and poorer mental performance. The research; using data from 500,000 adults found that a consistent 7 hours of sleep appear to be ideal for cognitive performance, general well-being and mental health in middle-aged and older people.
The results also indicated that both too much or too little sleep resulted in the subjects being slower in tests, having lower attention span and poorer problem-solving skills. They also suffer from anxiety and depression, and lower overall well-being. While the study does not describe causality, the findings suggest that insufficient or excessive sleep may be a risk factor for cognitive decline in old age, according to the researchers.
Getting a good night's sleep is important at all stages of life, but particularly as we age. According to Prof Dr. Barbara Sahakian from Cambridge, "finding ways to improve sleep for older people could be crucial to helping them maintain good mental health and well-being, and avoiding cognitive decline, particularly for patients with psychiatric disorders and dementias."
