Dementia, characterised by memory impairment and cognitive decline, is a major public health challenge which imposes a huge burden on the family members of the patients. An inverted U-shaped association between sleep duration and global cognitive decline was discovered in a recent pooled cohort study, showing that people who were deprived of sleep (≤4 hours per night) or who slept excessively (≥10 hours per night) were associated with a statistically significantly faster cognitive decline compared with the reference group (7 hours per night) after adjusting for a number of covariates. Thus, cognitive function should be regularly monitored in middle-aged and older individuals with inadequate or excessive sleep duration.

Keywords: excess sleep duration, cognitive decline, sleep deprivation, dementia

Reference:

Ma Y, et al. JAMA Netw Open 2020;3:e2013573.