According to a new study cited by The Guardian, a short daytime nap can slow down brain shrinkage, which occurs faster in people with neurodegenerative diseases, and keep it healthy as we age.

Researchers suggest that short daytime naps may keep the brain healthy as we age, after finding that siesta time was linked to a larger volume of the most important organ.

While previous research has shown that long sleep can be an early symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, other studies have shown that short sleep can improve people’s ability to learn.

Now researchers say they have found evidence that sleep can help protect the brain from shrinking, a process that occurs with age.

This is accelerated in people with cognitive problems and neurodegenerative diseases, and some studies suggest that it may be related to sleep problems.

“Consistent with these studies, we found an association between daytime sleep and greater total brain volume, which may suggest that regular sleep provides some protection against neurodegeneration by compensating for poor sleep quality,” the researchers note.

Sleep habits, analysis

According to the study, published in the journal Sleep Health, researchers from University College London and the University of the Republic of Uruguay analyzed data from the UK Biobank Study, which collected genetic, lifestyle and health information from 500,000 people aged 40 to 69. . .

Scientists used data from 35,080 Biobank participants to analyze whether a combination of genetic variants previously associated with daytime sleepiness might be closely related to brain volume, cognitive ability and other aspects of brain health.

Given that people are born with a random genetic makeup, this approach allows researchers to observe the effects of sleep on the brain while reducing the influence of lifestyle factors that can affect people’s sleep habits and brain health, such as smoking or physical activity.

“This is like a natural randomized control trial,” said study co-author Dr. Victoria Garfield of University College London, adding that the genetic variants were quite common.

“They are present in about at least 1% of the population, which is actually quite a lot of people.”

Indeed, while it initially appeared that participants who said they never or rarely napped during the day had larger total brain volume, the research team found the opposite relationship when taking into account genetic predisposition to sleep, suggesting that the initial finding may have been caused by other factors that complicated understanding the link between daytime sleep and brain size.

Overall, the team found a link between a genetic predisposition to regular daytime sleep and larger brain volume, equivalent to a 2.6 to 6.5 year reduction in aging, although there was no link with cognitive abilities such as reaction time.

A short nap during the day would be beneficial, say British researchers

“Maybe a short nap during the day … helps preserve brain volume, and that’s potentially positive (for) preventing dementia,” Garfield said, adding that previous research has shown that as little as 30 minutes can be beneficial.

Garfield noted that there are many risk factors that can lead to dementia, while many other elements can also affect brain volume.

Also, the study was based only on white people, and the exact sleep duration associated with the benefits is unknown. It is also unclear whether the same benefits of sleep would be observed in people without daytime sleepiness.

Professor Tara Spears-Jones, president of the British Association for Neuroscience, team leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute and deputy director of the Brain Research Center at the University of Edinburgh, welcomed the research, although she said it may have its flaws, particularly because the sleep habits that reported by study participants may be inaccurate.

“This study is important because it adds to the evidence that sleep is important for brain health,” Spears-Jones said.