One more reason to sleep longer: It can reduce the risk of dementia

This might be enough of a reason to head to bed earlier tonight.

For those that can get on by sleeping a few hours a night and function through the workday, a new study claims that middle-age adults sleeping six hours or less each night could set themselves up for brain failure in the future, increasing the risk of dementia by 30%.

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, combed through data of nearly 8,000 people in the UK over a 25-year period, starting when participants were 50 years old. They determined that people who slept for six hours or less at age 50 and 60 had a higher risk of dementia as compared to those who slept seven hours a night.

Researchers found that 50-year-olds who slept six hours of less nightly had a 22% higher risk of developing dementia later in life; 60-year-olds that slept for the same duration had a 37% greater increase in developing the disorder. This is when compared to people from the same age brackets that slept for seven hours per night, the study said.

The study also said that the increase in dementia risk was independent of “sociodemographic, behavioral, cardiometabolic, and mental health factors,” including depression.

“Sleep is important for normal brain function and is also thought to be important for clearing toxic proteins that build up in dementias from the brain,” said Tara Spires-Jones, the deputy director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, said in a statement.

Participants from the study reported their sleep duration and wore a tracking device that reported if their reports were correct. This isn’t so much of an important anecdote; the duration of the study — over 25 years — is a lengthy bit of research, which means it offers more of a sample compared to other studies that haven’t looked at data for that long. This gave scientists a better understanding of the link between sleep and dementia.

The study did have some limitations that don’t prove exactly less sleep leads to dementia. Most of the data was self-reported, and participants were all considered “healthier than the general population,” according to the study.

“These results do not conclusively prove that less sleep leads to dementia. It is possible, for example, that brain changes associated with very early disease are instead disrupting sleep,” Spires-Jones said.

It’s important to note that these findings didn’t link dementia to excessive sleep. In the past, researchers said sleeping too much — nine hours or more — doubled the risk of dementia when compared to those who slept less.

Recently, a new paper published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy proclaimed exergaming — physical activity that includes cognitive conditioning exercises — can dramatically improve symptoms associated with dementia in older populations. It helped people improve their walking speed, overall cognitive function, mobility, balance and step reaction time, while decreasing symptoms associated to clinical depression.

Eating processed meats also has been linked in increased dementia risk.