Poor Sleep Quality Accelerates Brain Aging (thelancet.com) 38
A large-scale study tracking more than 27,500 middle-aged and elderly people over roughly nine years has found that poor sleep quality is associated with accelerated brain aging, and chronic inflammation appears to be one of the key mechanisms driving this effect.
Researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute assessed participants' sleep across five dimensions -- chronotype, duration, insomnia, snoring and daytime sleepiness -- and later scanned their brains using MRI to estimate biological brain age through machine learning models. The results? For every point decrease in healthy sleep score, the gap between brain age and chronological age widened by approximately six months. Those in the poorest sleep category had brains that appeared roughly one year older than their actual age.
Night-owl tendencies, sleep duration outside the 7-8 hour sweet spot and snoring were particularly strongly linked to brain aging. The researchers measured low-grade inflammation using biomarkers including C-reactive protein levels and white blood cell counts. Inflammation accounted for more than 10% of the association between poor sleep patterns and brain aging. The glymphatic system, which clears waste from the brain primarily during sleep, may also play a role, the research added.
Researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute assessed participants' sleep across five dimensions -- chronotype, duration, insomnia, snoring and daytime sleepiness -- and later scanned their brains using MRI to estimate biological brain age through machine learning models. The results? For every point decrease in healthy sleep score, the gap between brain age and chronological age widened by approximately six months. Those in the poorest sleep category had brains that appeared roughly one year older than their actual age.
Night-owl tendencies, sleep duration outside the 7-8 hour sweet spot and snoring were particularly strongly linked to brain aging. The researchers measured low-grade inflammation using biomarkers including C-reactive protein levels and white blood cell counts. Inflammation accounted for more than 10% of the association between poor sleep patterns and brain aging. The glymphatic system, which clears waste from the brain primarily during sleep, may also play a role, the research added.
Re:What's a guaranteed easy way to sleep (Score:5, Informative)
Exercise and get ear plugs.
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Exercise and get ear plugs.
My response to the endless stream of sleep damage reports - not directed toward you or anyone other than the Sleep 8 hours, or you DIE! people.
I must have died 20 years ago. I sleep 5 hours a night, I dream answers to problems in my sleep. So I'm completely demented. 8^) Oh, and I enjoy working, apparently a real killer as well. All the things that kinda sound like the proverbial "Everything you believe is wrong" mantra
They keep putting out these get 8 hours every night, or your shortening your lifespan,
Re:What's a guaranteed easy way to sleep (Score:4, Interesting)
I sleep 5 hours a night, [...]
You might be one of the lucky few [livescience.com] with a very specific genetic mutation...
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I sleep 5 hours a night, [...]
You might be one of the lucky few [livescience.com] with a very specific genetic mutation...
I think that is a good possibility. Because this is just my natural cycle. If I only get say 3 hours, I'm definitely not in top form. And in the deep past, I've tried forcing more than 5. Never worked. So I just did what came natural, because it seemed pointless to lie in bed, fully awake/
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I must have died 20 years ago. I sleep 5 hours a night, I dream answers to problems in my sleep. So I'm completely demented. 8^) Oh, and I enjoy working, apparently a real killer as well. All the things that kinda sound like the proverbial "Everything you believe is wrong" mantra
Perhaps a consequence of that would be a tendency to draw a contrary conclusion from a single outcome.
Good idea posting as a coward. Did you parse your sentence before you posted? For assuming that I am the only person out of 8 billion that does not need 8 hours of sleep each night is your own tendency to draw a contrary conclusion.
Thomas Edison only slept 3-4 hours a night, Nikola Tesla said he only slept an astounding 2 hours. Barack Obama's normal sleep schedule was 6 hours.
There are more - https://methodshop.com/famous-... [methodshop.com]
Trying to shoehorn everyone into one inviolable number of hours of sleep
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I've tried taking melatonin tablets and diphenhydramine (benedryl). Those work but I have a weird reaction where 4 hours later I bounce WIDE awake.
Good luck. My brain is so bad I could be POTUS.
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Also an eye mask. Finding one that doesn't annoy can be a challenge. I read somewhere that when our eyes are open and not detecting much light, it send a signal to the brain to generate melatonin which triggers sleep.
I use two pillows. One under my head one over it (side sleeping, of course, with unobstructed breathing). I started doing it due to the noise of a neighbor kid playing video games, but found I like the darkness and isolation.
I've tried taking melatonin tablets and diphenhydramine (benedryl). Those work but I have a weird reaction where 4 hours later I bounce WIDE awake.
Daily use of diphenhydramine is linked to dementia.
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IKEA makes black-out curtains too, which I have found to be effective.
Just make sure you get up too. One of those sunrise simulation lamps works. Fitbit's alarm is second to none too, one of the best sleep upgrades I've ever had.
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Unfortunately I do these things but it does not work. Exercise does not help because adrenaline kicks in thanks to anxiety (fight or flight).
You do the exercising during the day. If you've still got anxiety-induced adrenaline keeping you from sleeping then it's probably not because of the exercise.
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an unanswerable question since everyone is different but here are the basics to try out:
eye mask
white noise generator of some sort
weighted blanket
having your bedroom be colder than normal
melatonin/seratonin can help
for some people marijuana can help quell thoughts, for others it makes them race
some people need zero screen time, some like myself will fall asleep easier watching something
also look into actually treating your anxiety. medication can help, therapy can help
maybe you just need a new job to give
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To add to this, the screen time prohibition is much more about the mental response to modern entertainment than the light. Yeah, the light should be dimmed, but doomscrolling or TV is almost always going to delay sleep.
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Low dose edibles
Re: What's a guaranteed easy way to sleep (Score:2)
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Have you tried low dose amitriptyline? Helps turn your brain off. I tried things like exercise, but they didn't help.
Helps to set a routine too. Use an app to put your phone in airplane mode, set everything else to turn off or make itself harder to use at bedtime. If you have smart home stuff, dim the lights, change the colour temperature to be warmer etc.
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Heroin.
Physical Aging As Well (Score:3)
It accelerates physical aging as well.
The beauty sleep meme exists for a very real reason.
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It accelerates physical aging as well.
The beauty sleep meme exists for a very real reason.
None of this bodes well for a President who's up rage-tweeting 100 posts at 3am ...
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It accelerates physical aging as well.
The beauty sleep meme exists for a very real reason.
Funny, my 5 hours a night ritual, and I should look like Dorian Gray. I sleep when I am tired, and wake when I'm done. The only times I do the 8 hour mandatory sleep or die thing is when I am ill. Funny that.
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There's a relevant but fairly rare genetic mutation... (https://www.livescience.com/health/sleep/rare-genetic-mutation-lets-some-people-thrive-on-just-4-hours-of-shut-eye).
Maybe you're one of them.
Ouch (Score:2)
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Wonder if it can be reversed at all.
This is the practical question. Are these bad effects cumulative or based on some recent time window? That is, can someone who had negative sleep but then follows good sleep behaviors for some time reach the same state of health as someone who had good sleep behaviors all along?
Re:Ouch (Score:5, Interesting)
It can't be reversed but it can be mitigated to a degree.
As someone who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) about five years ago I can tell you that one of the most impactful effects of that disease is *not* the tremors but the sleep disruption. A fairly high percentage of PD suffers go on to develop dementia and I'm pretty sure that this progression is hastened by the fact that sleep is so disrupted and limited.
My mitigation for the effects of sleep deprivation associated with my PD is creatine monohydrate. I've been taking this for several years and it does make a huge difference to my ability to function when sleep deprived as well as with other effects of the disease.
One thing to remember is that sleep naturally occurs in a cycle of about 90 minutes duration so even if you can't get a full 8 hours in one session, if you can accumulate multiple 90-minute sleeps during the day you're a lot better off. Of course that's not practical for someone whose in paid employment but for us older folk it means that catching a nap whenever we can is essential.
I'm nearly 73.
Not too concerning (Score:2, Troll)
Untreated sleep apnea (Score:2)
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Sleep on your side.
Re: Untreated sleep apnea (Score:1)
EMR is daylight to the brain (Score:1, Troll)
EMR (electromagnetic radiation) like WiFi, cell phones, wireless electric meters, Bluetooth are all like daylight to the brain. Your eyes may be closed for 7-8h but your brain is not allowed to get into repair mode while being constantly bombarded by EMR.
At what frequencies and power levels? (Score:1)
EMR (electromagnetic radiation) like WiFi, cell phones, wireless electric meters, Bluetooth are all like daylight to the brain.
"Citation needed" from multiple high-quality peer-reviewed studies.
If things were as bad as you imply, nearly everyone in most big cities would be suffering noticeable health effects. If not "nearly everyone" then at least a huge percentage. The number of people complaining about bad health effects is small enough that your claims fall under the "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" rule.
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Citation missing.
I'm tired of these kinds of headlines (Score:3)
Seriously.
I know firsthand that bad sleep does a number on you, what I need to know is how to sleep well. In over 40 years I haven't managed so far.
primary cause (Score:2)
The prmary cause of poor sleep is worrying that you won't be able to sleep.