Contents:
- Medical Video: 12 Ways Your Body Tries To Tell You That Your Liver Is Being Damaged
- Excessive sleep increases the risk of dementia
- What is dementia?
- Symptoms of dementia
- How long is the ideal sleep time?
Medical Video: 12 Ways Your Body Tries To Tell You That Your Liver Is Being Damaged
Sleep is a basic human need. During sleep, cells in the body repair themselves and renew energy again. So, enough sleep time is needed to support health. You may often hear that lack of sleep can cause stress, become weak tomorrow, disruption mood, and so forth. But not only that, excessive sleep can also increase the risk of dementia, according to recent research.
Excessive sleep increases the risk of dementia
A study published in the recent journal Neurology has shown that excessive sleep can increase the risk of dementia. Research led by Dr. Sudha Seshadri, professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), was conducted by collecting sleep time for study participants every night. Researchers also followed the development of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in participants for 10 years.
As a result, researchers found that participants who slept more than 9 hours had twice the risk of developing dementia 10 years later, compared with participants who had a bedtime of 9 hours or less.
The study also proved that participants who slept more than 9 hours had smaller brain volumes compared to participants who had 6-9 hours of sleep. This is because there is a decrease in brain function (the brain is less successful in processing the mind and completing tasks), thus increasing the risk of dementia.
The results of this study might help predict people at risk for dementia. Sleep time is too long can also be an early sign of someone developing neurodegeneration disease (a disease that attacks brain cells and spinal cord). Efforts to reduce the amount of sleep do not seem to reduce the risk of dementia.
What is dementia?
Dementia is not a disease. This is a term used to describe various symptoms associated with decreased memory or other thinking abilities. Alzheimer's is one of the reasons a person has dementia. People with dementia usually have problems with short-term memory.
Dementia is caused by damage to brain cells. This causes disruption of the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other. Thus, brain function can be disrupted and can affect your ability to think, behave, and feel. Unfortunately, most changes in the brain that cause dementia are permanent and can worsen with time.
Symptoms of dementia
People with dementia usually show symptoms, such as
- Difficulty in speaking and understanding speech
- Easy to forget the date and day
- Easily forget about an item and can't remember / trace where it last saw the item
- It's hard to finish everyday work like preparing food
- There is a change in personality and mood
- Feeling depressed
- Hallucinating
- Having problems in controlling emotions
- Losing empathy
How long is the ideal sleep time?
Sleep can be an indicator of overall health and well-being. So, enough sleep is very important to fulfill. Sleep time needed can vary between ages. For adults aged 18-64 years, the required sleep time is 7-9 hours. Meanwhile, the elderly aged 65 years and over need 7-8 hours of sleep. Sleeping less than 7 hours can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, and mental stress.
