- Scientists report that people with irregular sleep patterns have a higher risk of dementia.
- Sleep regularity is going to sleep and waking up at the same general time each day.
- Sleep irregularity has also been associated with cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, depression, and atherosclerosis.
People with irregular sleep patterns might have a higher risk of dementia than those with regular sleep patterns, according to a new study published in the journal Neurology.
Sleep regularity is how consistent a person is at going to sleep and waking up at the same general time each day.
To measure this, 88,094 people wore a wrist device that measured their sleep cycle for seven days. Participants had an average age of 62.
Researchers used the data from the wrist device to calculate the regularity of sleep and the probability of a person being in the same sleep state (asleep or awake) at any two time-points, 24 hours apart. They averaged this data over seven days.
Participants were scored based on sleep regularity using a scale of 0 to 100. For example, those who went to sleep and woke up at the exact same time each day received a score of 100. Meanwhile, individuals who went to sleep and woke up at different times each day received a score of zero.
Those in the lowest 5% had an average score of 41. Those in the highest 5% had an average score of 71. The overall average was 60.
During an average follow-up period of seven years, 480 participants developed dementia.
The researchers reported that people with irregular sleep patterns were 53% more likely to develop dementia than those with midrange scores. Having the most regular sleep pattern did not decrease the dementia risk compared to the group in the middle.
Although the scientists adjusted for several factors that can affect the risk of dementia, they said they could not rule out that another unknown factor may play a role in the association between sleep regularity and dementia.
“This study is intriguing and it has good…
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