Khaberni - A comprehensive study warned that individuals suffering from poor sleep might have brains that are "older" than their actual age, which could accelerate brain aging.
The study, conducted by researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and published in the journal "E-BioMedicine," based its findings on data from more than 27,000 middle-aged and elderly people from the UK Biobank database, all of whom underwent MRI scans of the brain. Using artificial intelligence techniques, the "biological age of the brain" was estimated and compared with the participants' actual chronological age.
Abigail Dove, the lead researcher in the study, said, "We observed that the gap between the brain age and the actual age increases by about six months for every point drop in the sleep quality scale. And individuals who reported poor sleep had brains that were on average one year older than their actual age."
The researchers evaluated sleep based on five factors: sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, daytime sleepiness, and sleep pattern (evening or morning). The participants were divided into three groups: healthy sleep, average sleep, and poor sleep.
The team also studied the relationship between sleep and low-grade inflammation in the body, finding that inflammation accounts for about 10% of the relationship between poor sleep and accelerated brain aging. Dove explains, "Our findings suggest that lack of sleep may contribute to accelerated brain aging, and that inflammation is one of the mechanisms explaining this effect. Since sleep habits can be modified, it may be possible to slow brain aging and even delay cognitive decline by improving sleep patterns."
The researchers hypothesize other potential mechanisms through which lack of sleep may disrupt the "brain cleaning system," which is responsible for removing toxins during sleep, or it may adversely affect cardiovascular health, which reflects on brain health.
Although participants in the UK Biobank database are healthier than the general population in Britain, which may limit the generalization of the results, the study represents an important step in understanding the relationship between sleep and brain health.
