Although lack of sleep can easily harm your health, sleeping too much is not a good thing either.
People who sleep too much have faster cognitive decline than others
Spanish and American researchers have found that for elderly people aged 60 to 70, if they sleep an average of more than 9 hours a day, their brain cognitive function is likely to decline rapidly within 3 years. The decline in their cognitive function is greater than that of people who sleep 6 to 8 hours a day.
Cognitive function includes memory and thinking ability. Once cognitive function deteriorates, the risk of dementia will increase greatly.
Experiment on the correlation between sleep duration and Alzheimer's disease
Researchers from the University Hospital of Madrid, Spain and Columbia University in New York conducted a three-year follow-up study on the sleep time of 2,700 people aged 60 to 70.
At the beginning of the study, the researchers used intelligence tests to assess the brain function of the subjects, which can also be used to assess the risk of Alzheimer’s.
During the three-year study, 49% of all subjects slept 6 to 8 hours a day, 40% slept more than 9 hours a day, and 11% slept less than 5 hours a day.
Sleeping too much will increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease
The study found that compared with people who slept 6 to 8 hours a day, those who slept the longest had a nearly doubled decline in cognitive function.
Judging from the research results, the length of sleep is closely related to cognitive function, but whether sleep duration will lead to cognitive decline still needs further study.