Memory fail? Shame you didn’t sleep better

Poor sleep in your thirties and forties is linked to memory and thinking problems a decade later, according to new research.

Those with the most disrupted sleep were more than twice as likely to have poor cognitive performance as those with the least disrupted sleep, the study found.

Poor sleep in your thirties and forties is linked to memory and thinking problems a decade later, according to new research.

The study found for people of those ages, those with the most disrupted sleep were more than twice as likely to have poor cognitive performance as those with the least disrupted sleep.

Yue Leng of the University of California, San Francisco, the author of the study, said: “Given that signs of Alzheimer’s disease start to accumulate in the brain several decades before symptoms begin, understanding the connection between sleep and cognition earlier in life is critical for understanding the role of sleep problems as a risk factor for the disease.”

The quality of shut-eye was more important than the quantity, she added.

The study followed 526 people with an average age of 40 for 11 years. Researchers collected sleep data using Fitbit-style wrist monitors worn for three consecutive days on two occasions approximately a year apart.

The participants filled out questionnaires recording bedtimes and wake times and scored their sleep quality from zero to 21. Higher scores indicated poorer quality, and 239 of the participants scored greater than five. They later completed a series of tests examining memory and thinking skills.

They were divided into three groups based on their “sleep ­fragmentation” score, a measure of how many repetitive, short ­interruptions of sleep they ­experienced. Of the 175 people with the most disrupted sleep, 44 had poor cognitive performance 10 years later, compared with 10 of the 176 with the least disrupted sleep.

After taking into account age, gender, race and education, the researchers said this equated to “more than twice the odds of having poor cognitive performance” in the most disrupted group.

Neither the amount of time spent sleeping nor participants’ reports of sleep quality was linked to thinking abilities in middle age.

“More research is needed to assess the link between sleep ­disturbances and cognition at ­different stages of life and to identify if critical life periods exist when sleep is more strongly associated with cognition,” Dr Leng said.

“Future studies could open up new opportunities for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease later in life.”

The research is published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of ­Neurology.

The Times