Missing out on sleep not only makes you feel groggy the next day, but the effects can be long-lasting. Adding to the growing body of evidence, researchers have now found that poor sleep in the middle ages is linked to accelerated brain aging in the next ten years.

The latest study that evaluated participants' brain health using brain scans revealed that having poor sleep quality in the 40s might add more years to the brain age.

"Sleep problems have been linked in previous research to poor thinking and memory skills later in life, putting people at higher risk for dementia. Our study which used brain scans to determine participants' brain age, suggests that poor sleep is linked to nearly three years of additional brain aging as early as middle age," said study author, Clémence Cavaillès from the University of California San Francisco in a news release.

The researchers evaluated the sleep patterns of 589 participants with an average age of 40 using questionnaires at the start of the study and five years later. After 15 years, the researchers evaluated the brain shrinkage of the participants using brain scans.

The questionnaires evaluated participants based on six sleep issues: difficulty falling asleep, waking up in between sleep, waking up too early, short sleep duration, bad sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness.

Based on the results, participants were divided into three groups according to their sleep quality. Those in the low group had just one poor sleep characteristic and 70% belonged to this group. However, the middle group, comprising 22% of participants, had two to three poor sleep features, while the high group, with more than three poor sleep characteristics, made up 8% of the population.

After analyzing brain scans alongside sleep patterns, researchers found that participants in the middle group had an average brain age of 1.6 years older than those in the low group. Meanwhile, those in the high group showed an average brain age of 2.6 years older than the low group.

Out of the six poor sleep characteristics studied, bad sleep quality, difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep and early morning awakening were linked to greater brain age. This was particularly strong when the participants consistently had it for over five years.

"Our findings highlight the importance of addressing sleep problems earlier in life to preserve brain health, including maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, exercising, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before going to bed and using relaxation techniques," said author Dr. Kristine Yaffe, from the University of California San Francisco.

Read more