Sleep your way to healthy ageing: Study finds key to longevity

New Delhi: A study by researchers from Wenzhou Medical University in China has highlighted the significant role sleep patterns play in promoting healthy ageing. The researchers suggest that maintaining stable and sufficient sleep durations may help prevent chronic diseases and support overall mental and physical well-being as people age.

The study defines "successful ageing" as the absence of major chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, chronic lung diseases, and stroke, combined with good mental and cognitive health and no physical impairments. In their research, the team monitored 3,306 participants who were free from major chronic diseases in 2011 and had reached the age of 60 or older by 2020.

Participants' sleep habits, including nighttime and daytime naps, were tracked in 2011, 2013, and 2015 to calculate their total daily sleep hours. The researchers identified five sleep duration patterns: normal-stable, long-stable, decreasing, increasing, and short-stable. They found that those with increasing or consistently short sleep patterns were significantly less likely to meet the criteria for successful ageing, with decreasing sleep patterns also linked to lower odds of healthy ageing.

The study, published in BMC Public Health, indicates that chronic sleep deprivation and fluctuating sleep patterns, either increasing or decreasing over time, can negatively impact physiological and psychological health. Only 13.8 percent of participants met the criteria for successful ageing by 2020.

These findings suggest that disrupted sleep is not just an age-related change but a critical factor that may hinder successful ageing. The researchers underscore the importance of monitoring sleep patterns in middle-aged and older adults to support long-term health and well-being.


With IANS inputs