Sleeping longer than 6.5 hours is associated with cognitive decline?

[MarkS]

This is not strictly to do with AF but I know a lot of people on this board suffer from lack of sleep and may find this reassuring.

This research indicates that sleeping more than 6.5 hours is associated with cognitive decline, with a sweet spot of 4.5 to 6.5 hours: theconversation.com/sleepin...

I wouldn't say this is definitive, this is just one study among many, most of which do indicate a longer sweet spot. It would appear that it is the quality of the sleep that matters and not so much its length.

However, as I typically sleep 5.5-6 hours a night, I'll take this at face value!

Mark

[CDreamer]

I read that study and really didn’t know what to make of it as I thought it so vague.

There is an old saying - the more sleep you have, the more you want. This was told to me whilst on 4 hour watches so the longest, uninterrupted sleep I ever got was about 2 hours! That wasn’t good for my health!

Nowadays I find I rarely sleep more than 6 hours during the night but need to have a power nap during the day - seems to work for me.

[MarkS in reply to CDreamer]

That sounds familiar, I did 4 hour watches in the RN plus spells of 6 hours on and 6 off on defence watches.

[BobD Volunteer]

From my own personal experiences the flip side is that several people who I know who went on to develop dementia all developed strange sleep patterns a few years earlier. Typically they would be up at 3 or 4 am busy doing things about the house whilst other slept. I know this proves nothing but agree with CD on the power naps. When my motorsport and day jobs were conflicting and my nightly sleep less than five hours those really saved my sanity.

[secondtry]

Thanks Mark. I rarely get over 7 hrs, averaging around 6.25 with 2 bathroom visits. I also find a post lunch nap helpful.

What may interest some is that since I started a small tape over the middle of my lips at night (to force nose breathing, see Patrick McKeown or James Nestor on YouTube) even though like last night I feel I needed another hour I am much brighter during the day. Previously, in the same circumstances I would be washed out for the day.

[Singwell]

They tested sleep ONCE over a period of three years and call that a result?? I'm amazed the paper got published. It doesn't match with current thinking from neuropsychology studies. So personally, I wouldn't be paying a lot of attention, not from this news article at least.

[Singwell]

BTW I've taught myself to power nap - really helpful. So when I do get a bad night's sleep I worry less about its impact.

[Hidden]

Unfortunately, AF generally is associated with cognitive decline and dementia. I don't think that the correlation between longer sleeping times and cognitive decline means that there is a causal relationship.

[pd63]

Can't manage on less than 8 hrs as long as I can remember

[bassets]

As far as I can see, everybody seems to need a particular length of sleep - while some are good with 8 or 9 hours, others simply don't need as much.