The Sleep “Sweet Spot” for Better Cognition

 The ideal amount of sleep for a sharp brain 

If you’ve ever gone a few nights with poor sleep, you know the effect it can have on your brain. 

Confusion, slow thinking, poor decision-making, moodiness. 

But can poor sleep also lead to cognitive decline? 

Researchers took a closer look at this connection, and in the process, they identified the ideal amount of sleep for better brain health. 

Think of it like your sleep “sweet-spot.”

We know that poor sleep and Alzheimer’s disease both go hand-in-hand with cognitive decline.  

But not much research has been done to isolate poor sleepers from those with Alzheimer’s in order to see if sleep alone could impact cognition. 

To take a closer look, researchers obtained sleep and Alzheimer’s data on 100 people whose cognitive function had been monitored for about 4.5 years.  

Even after adjusting for factors like Alzheimer’s proteins, the APOE4 gene (which increases the risk of Alzheimer’s), and age, they found that the amount of sleep was independently associated with cognitive function. 

Surprisingly, both too little sleep—and too much sleep—was associated with cognitive decline. 

The sleep sweet spot? 

Between 5.5-7.5 hours of sleep 

The fact that both shorter and longer sleep durations were associated with cognitive problems indicates that there’s more to the story. 

Namely, that sleep quality is as important to cognitive health as sleep quantity. 

If you’re waking throughout the night, having trouble falling asleep, or sleeping restlessly, you’re not going to wake up feeling rested. 

This is a key indicator that your body isn’t doing the important work of repairing damaged cells while you sleep. 

And that can have a negative impact on everything from your brain function to your risk of cancer. 

The bottom line here is that the quality of your sleep and the quality of your health go hand-in-hand. 

If you’re not sleeping well, it’s time to take steps to improve it. 

That doesn’t mean taking a sleeping pill. 

It means making lifestyle changes like not eating or drinking close to bedtime, eliminating blue light at night, sleeping in a cool, dark room, and not sleeping with your cell phone next to your bed. 

Simple “sleep hygiene” fixes like these can make a world of difference when it comes to both the quality and the quantity of your sleep.