Press release (Embargo: 00:01 27 June 2014)

Research published today in PLOS ONE by researchers at Warwick Medical School indicates that sleep problems are associated with worse memory and executive function in older people.

Analysis of sleep and cognitive (brain function) data, from 3,968 men and 4,821 women who took part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), was conducted in a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The study showed that there is an association between both quality and duration of sleep and brain function which changes with age.

In adults aged between 50 and 64 years of age, short sleep (‹6hrs per night) and long sleep (›8hrs per night) were associated with lower brain function scores. By contrast, in older adults (65-89 years) lower brain function scores were only observed in long sleepers.

Dr Michelle A Miller says “6-8 hours of sleep per night is particularly important for optimum brain function, in younger adults. These results are consistent with our previous research, which showed that 6-8 hours of sleep per night was optimal for physical health, including lowest risk of developing obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and stroke”.

Interestingly, in the younger pre-retirement aged adults, sleep quality did not have any significant association with brain function scores, whereas in the older adults (>65 years), there was a significant relationship between sleep quality and the observed scores.

“Sleep is important for good health and mental wellbeing” says Professor Francesco Cappuccio, “Optimising sleep at an older age may help to delay the decline in brain function seen with age, or indeed may slow or prevent the rapid decline that leads to dementia”.

Dr Miller concludes that “if poor sleep is causative of future cognitive decline, non-pharmacological improvements in sleep may provide an alternative low-cost and more accessible Public Health intervention, to delay or slow the rate of cognitive decline”.

Facts

• In 2012 it was stated that ‘the level of diagnosis understanding and awareness of dementia is shockingly low’ and, that the estimated cost to society is currently around £23bn Read full story on BBC website
• More recently, the Prime Minister said there was a need to develop more drugs and get them to patients more quickly. For that to happen, international collaboration and more funding for dementia research was needed Read full statement on BBC website

The full article was published in PLOS ONE on 26 June 2014. Full details of this open–access research article

Dr Miller and Professor Cappuccio discussed these and other findings from their “Sleep, Health and Society Research Programme” at a free public event on Friday 27 June 2014 at Warwick University.

Dr Miller and Professor Cappuccio are available for interview. Please call Kelly Parkes-Harrison, Senior Press and Communications Manager, University of Warwick, k dot e dot parkes at warwick dot ac dot uk, 02476 150868, 07824 540863