UT Health SA used data from a cardiovascular study that has been taking place for over 75 years.
SAN ANTONIO — We all want good sleep. And many of us don’t get enough of it.
But too much sleep could also be bad for your body and especially your brain.
A study ran by UT Health San Antonio found too much rest isn’t truly the best… for your brain that is.
They found there could be a connection between too much sleep and cognitive decline like dementia.
Vanessa Young, MS, a clinical research project manager at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio told us, “While many people are familiar that too little with the effects of too little sleep as you mentioned, we also observed that people who report sleeping too long may also tend to score lower in those tests on memory and thinking skills.”
UT Health’s results came from sleep duration data acquired in the ongoing multi-generational Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948. They looked at 1,853 dementia-and-stroke-free participants. The latest examination focused on people between the ages of 27 and 85. The study found those with depression had their impacts magnified.
Young added, “We cannot change our age. Obviously we cannot change our genetic makeup, but we can do something about our sleep. We can do something about the management of our depressive symptoms.”
So how much sleep, could be too much sleep? According to the study, over nine hours could be just too much.
Young added, “We cannot say that long sleep is actually causing those changes, or if perhaps the early brain changes are leading to those sleeping longer.”
Young also told us not to focus on how many hours of sleep you get each night, but note any changes in your typical sleep pattern. And if you feel sleep is changing from the norm, to see your family physician.