Older Adults Who Sleep Less Are at Higher Risk for Multiple Chronic Diseases
Here’s some news that will keep you up at night: a lack of sleep later correlates with a higher risk of being diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer, depression, and dementia.
That’s not entirely a surprise—previous studies have shown that not sleeping enough can double your risk of death. But these latest findings, from researchers in Paris and London and published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Medicine better illustrate the role of sleep in preventing—and encouraging—the development of chronic conditions The study found that 50-, 60-, and 70-year-olds who slept at least two fewer hours than recommended were at higher risk for being diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions. Good sleep hygiene may be key to keeping aging populations healthy, wrote the researchers.
It’s common for sleep patterns to change as people age—many find, for instance, that it becomes more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep as they grow older. Some of these changes may be caused by the deterioration of circadian pacemakers in the brain that regulate our body clock, but there are also longstanding questions about how disease affects and is affected by sleep.