Lack of sleepis accused of many evils: in addition to fatigue, it would make the body more vulnerable to infections, would encourage people to eat more, exposing them to overweight… To counter these undesirable effects, the solution would therefore be to sleep a lot? The answer is not so simple, judging by a study published in the American Academy of Neurology. This warns against sleeping too much, that is to say more than 9 hours per night.
In other words, if lack of sleep harms health, excess should also be avoided. Too long nights of sleep could increase the risk of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease according to the study by the Boston University Medical Center (United States).
Sleep duration, a diagnostic tool for dementia
The association between sleep duration and the occurrence of dementia and neurodegenerative disorders was made after following a panel of 2,400 participants for ten years. As a result, people who slept more than 9 hours each night doubled their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease within 10 years compared to participants who slept less than nine hours. Brain analysis showed in heavy sleepers that brain volume was lower, that information processing took longer and that memory was affected.
“Sleep duration could be a useful clinical tool to help people predict a risk of developing dementia over the next ten years,” Dr. Matthew Pase of Boston University Medical Center told the Daily Mail.
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