Poor Sleep in Early Midlife Tied to Accelerated Brain Aging

TOPLINE:

Poor sleep quality in early middle age is associated with signs of accelerated brain aging in late middle age, a new study shows. Investigators say the findings suggest that addressing sleep issues earlier in life may help preserve brain health.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers analyzed the data of 589 participants (mean age, 40 years; 53% women) with baseline sleep characteristics and brain MRI scans from the prospective CARDIA cohort study.
• Participants completed sleep questionnaires that assessed sleep duration, quality, and disturbances at baseline and 5 years later; the number of poor sleep characteristics (PSCs) were grouped as 0-1, 2-3, and > 3.
• Participants’ age, sex, education, and health conditions were included as covariates.
• Brain MRI was performed 15 years later to determine brain age using a machine-learning approach based on age-related atrophy.

TAKEAWAY:

• At baseline, around 70% participants reported 0-1 PSCs, 22% reported 2-3 PSCs, and 8% reported > 3 PSCs.
• Compared with those with 0-1 PSCs, after adjusting for confounders, the brain age was 1.9 years older (95% CI, 0.55-3.18 ) in those with 2-3 PSCs and 3.5 years older (95% CI, 1.53-5.56 ) in those with > 3 PSCs.
• Bad sleep quality, difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early-morning awakening, and daytime sleepiness were associated with an older brain age.
• When persistent over 5 years, these features were found to be associated with an older brain age of 2.8 years, 3.8 years, 1.8 years, 3.8 years, and 2.4 years, respectively.

IN PRACTICE:

“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,” author Kristine Yaffe, MD, University of California San Francisco, said in a press release.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Clémence Cavaillès, PhD, University of California San Francisco. It was published online on October 23 in Neurology.

LIMITATIONS: 

Limitations of the study include its observational design, a potential misclassification bias owing to self-reported sleep measures, and the potential influence of unmeasured neuropathology on brain age measures. The selectivity of the sample may have limited the generalizability of the findings.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was supported in part by the National Institute on Aging. No relevant conflicts of interest were disclosed by the authors.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.