Poor Sleep and Brain Aging: The Need to Get Good Shut Eye

At the Kahn Center, we spend a significant amount of time evaluating sleep patterns and trying to improve them. Sleep is so important for heart health that the American Heart Association added sleep to 7 other risk factors (Life's Essential 8) and this has proven to be a very helpful tool for evaluating risk.

Poor-quality sleep has also been linked to increased dementia risk. A new study investigated the relationship between healthy sleep pattern and older brain age, and the extent to which this is mediated by systemic inflammation.

STUDY

The study included 27,500 adults from the UK Biobank (mean age 55 y, 54.0% female). The presence of five self-reported healthy sleep characteristics (early chronotype, 7–8 h daily sleep, no insomnia, no snoring, no excessive daytime sleepiness) were summed into a healthy sleep score (0–5 pts) and used to define three sleep patterns: healthy (≥4 pts), intermediate (2–3 pts), and poor (≤1 pt).

Low-grade inflammation was estimated using the INFLA-score, a composite index of inflammatory biomarkers.

After a mean follow-up of 9 y, brain age was estimated using a machine learning model based on 1079 brain MRI phenotypes and used to calculate brain age gap (BAG; i.e., brain age minus chronological age).

RESULTS

At baseline, 898 (3%) participants had poor sleep, 15,283 (56%) had intermediate sleep, and 11,319 (41%) had healthy sleep.

Compared to healthy sleep, intermediate and poor sleep were associated with significantly higher BAG. Inflammation scores was a strong connection between poor sleep and brain aging.

CONCLUSIONS

Poor sleep health may accelerate brain ageing. This may be driven by higher levels of systemic inflammation.

Many patients are using wearables (FitBit, Apple watch, Oura ring, WHOOP band and others) to assess their sleep quality and duration. At the Kahn Center, we offer easy and affordable home sleep studies done in the comfort of your own bed.

Their are many approaches to poor sleep and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia may be needed. Sleep hygiene and safe supplements, not Rx medications, may be of value too.

Author

Dr. Joel Kahn

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