HEALTHY LIVING
Poor Sleep Linked to Variety of Ailments
New studies show it increases risks of dementia, diabetes, hypertension, and long COVID. ::
BY CHRIS ILIADES, M.D. S
leep is a hot research topic. Four major studies have recently added to what
we know about its importance and how it can affect dementia, diabetes, blood pressure, and the immune system. For years doctors have
recommended a minimum of seven hours of sleep a night, yet more than a third of Americans get less. “Sleep health is an emerging
field and knowledge of the benefits of sleep health, including regularity, satisfaction, alertness, timing, and duration, have been recognized more in recent years,” says sleep physiology researcher Stephanie Griggs, Ph.D., a registered nurse and assistant professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Nursing.
DEMENTIA
A study from Australia, published in JAMA Neurology, found that older adults who experience declines in an important phase of deep sleep have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The five-year
study of 346 adults over age 60 found that losing as little
as 1% of deep sleep each year is linked to a 27% increase in the risk of dementia. “Deep sleep is
called S3 or slow wave sleep, and elderly people spend less time in S3,” says Prachi Singh, Ph.D., director of the Sleep and Cardiometabolic Health Laboratory at the Louisiana State University
Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. “There is evidence
that slow wave sleep is important for cognitive health. Older adults with fragmented sleep have less deep sleep and a higher risk of Alzheimer’s dementia.”
During deep
sleep, brain fluid washes away toxic waste particles that build up in people with Alzheimer’s disease, like a healthy brain washing. So, according to this and other studies, interrupted sleep cycles are a major cognitive health risk.
84 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE | JUNE 2024
A study from Harvard researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that “night owls” are at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes than “early birds.” Some people prefer to go to sleep later and
sleep later in the morning. Others prefer early to bed and early to rise. These preferences are called a person’s chronotype. Your chronotype may be more a matter of
your genes than your choice. “About one-third of the U.S. population is
early chronotype and one in five are late, or evening chronotype,” says Griggs. “The rest are somewhere in between. Late chronotype has been associated with higher risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease along with diabetes.” A new seven-year study of more than 60,000 men and women, ages 30 to 55, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that those with late chronotype had a 19% higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, compared to early chronotypes. “One possible explanation for this is that late
chronotypes often have shorter sleep duration and may not obtain the recommended seven to nine hours per night,” says Griggs. And according to the study, the night owls
were also more likely to have less-healthy lifestyles.
©ISTOCK
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