poor Sleep Linked to Faster Brain Aging, Study Finds
People with poor sleep habits may experience accelerated brain aging, according to new research from Karolinska Institutet published in eBioMedicine. The study suggests that inflammation in the body plays a role in this connection, and highlights the potential for improving sleep to protect brain health.
Researchers investigated the relationship between sleep quality and brain age in 27,500 middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank. Using MRI scans and machine learning, they estimated each participant’s “brain age” - how old the brain appears based on its structure – compared to their actual chronological age.
Sleep quality was assessed based on self-reported data regarding chronotype, sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness. Participants were categorized as having healthy, intermediate, or poor sleep.
The results showed a clear link: for every one-point decrease in a healthy sleep score, the gap between brain age and chronological age widened by approximately six months. Individuals with poor sleep had brains that appeared, on average, a year older than their actual age.
Further analysis revealed that low-grade inflammation accounted for over 10% of the connection between poor sleep and accelerated brain aging. “Our findings provide evidence that poor sleep may contribute to accelerated brain aging and point to inflammation as one of the underlying mechanisms,” explains lead researcher Abigail Dove.
While the exact mechanisms are still being explored, researchers suggest that disrupted sleep may impair the brain’s waste clearance systems or negatively impact cardiovascular health, both of which can affect brain health.
It’s vital to note that the study relied on self-reported sleep data and included participants from the UK Biobank, who tend to be healthier than the general population, potentially limiting the broad applicability of the findings.
However, the study’s findings offer a hopeful message: because sleep is a modifiable behavior, improving sleep habits may be a preventative measure against accelerated brain aging and potential cognitive decline.
The research was a collaborative effort involving institutions in Sweden and China and was funded by several organizations dedicated to Alzheimer’s and dementia research. The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.
