Scientists have named the optimal sleep duration for middle and older age

A person sleeps a third of his life. Without a doubt, sleep is a very important period for our body. The body at this time restores the wasted forces, and the brain undergoes a deep cleansing of unnecessary information and analyzes the experience gained during wakefulness. But age significantly affects both the quality and duration of sleep. Scientists have conducted research and established what is the optimal sleep duration for those who have crossed the bar at 35 years old.

After 35 years, you can notice changes associated with sleep. Every year it becomes more and more difficult to fall asleep, and the sleep itself becomes superficial and not as refreshing as before. All this not only affects mood and well-being, but also contributes to the development of age-related diseases and cognitive decline.

Despite all the difficulties, you need to try your best to give at least 7 hours of sleep a day. This is the length of sleep for those over 35 years old, recommended by scientists in the UK and China. This is the optimal time to restore the functions of organs, as well as to rest the brain. It was after 7 hours of sleep that the study participants showed the best results of cognitive tests.

The British-Chinese team of researchers was headed by Dr. Wei Cheng. It was he who became the author of an article in the publication Nature Aging, which summarizes the results of painstaking work. A team of scientists studied the data of a longitudinal study of UK residents by UK Biobank. This is information about 500 thousand Britons aged 38 to 73 years.

All these people took cognitive tests, and also answered questions in questionnaires. Among other things, the survey participants had to tell about the duration and nature of their sleep. For 40 thousand people, the study has become even deeper. They passed a genetic analysis and underwent an MRI of the brain.

To process such a significant array of information, doctors used computer algorithms. The result was a bit unexpected for everyone. It turned out that both lack of sleep and its overabundance negatively affect cognitive functions and health. Memory, attention, reaction speed and many other functions of our brain suffer.

The best results were shown by those who slept 7 hours a day. They also turned out to be the most stable psychologically. These people were much less likely to suffer from insomnia, anxiety and depression. Tomography has shown that those who sleep more or less than the optimal time have changes in some brain structures. They are associated with memory and the performance of higher cognitive functions.

Not so long ago, scientists found out the reason why we do not get enough sleep, even if we spend half of our lives in the arms of Morpheus.