Is short sleep bad for your brain?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-06-27 03:00

International

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Some people sleep less than six hours every day without feeling tired during the day, according to international researchers who say that these people can cope with less sleep without obvious negative effects on their brains. The team investigated data from over 47,000 people between 20 and 89 years of age who self-reported sleep behaviour and underwent brain scans and cognitive tests. They found a small number of people who had less than six hours of sleep every day and did not experience daytime sleepiness, or sleep problems. The researchers did find that the short-sleepers scored slightly lower on tests of general thinking ability, and say their results suggest the need for sleep is individual and that sleep duration may be very weakly, if at all, related to brain health.

Media release

From: Society for Neuroscience

Is short sleep bad for the brain? Brain structure and cognitive function in short sleepers

Short habitual sleep is prevalent, with unknown consequences for brain health and cognitive function. Fjell et al. show that some people sleep less than six hours every day without feeling tired during the day. These participants had larger regional

brain volumes, which suggests that some people can cope with less sleep without obvious negative associations with brain structural features. Although they scored slightly lower on tests of general cognitive ability, the results suggest that sleep need is individual, and that sleep duration may be very weakly if at all related to brain health.

Journal/
conference: The Journal of Neuroscience

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Oslo, Norway

Funder: See paper for funding.

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