The amount of time people spend sleeping decreases through their mid-30s — and remains low through their mid-50s, according to a study.
The average number of hours that adults slept averaged about seven hours. But the time they spent sleeping gradually decreased through their early 30s, before stabilizing for about 10 years and then increasing again in their mid-50s.
The lack of sleep in middle age – between 33 and 54 – is attributed to everyday stress, the demands of raising children and working.
The amount of sleep people get each day has a major impact on overall health, including mental well-being, cognitive ability and cardiovascular strength, although recent research suggests that sleep quality is more important than duration.
Sleep duration decreased most between the ages of 19 and 35, then plateaued in the early 1930s and increased again in the mid-1950s
The average sleep time was seven hours across all age groups and in more than 60 countries
Prof Hugo Spiers, a neuroscientist at University College London who led the research, said: “We found that people around the world sleep less as adults, but the average sleep duration varies between regions and countries.”
In dozens of countries, women slept slightly more than men – about seven and a half minutes on average.
Forget catching up on your seven hours… Sleep quality is more important than length
Ensuring you get a good night’s sleep “trump” when you hit the recommended seven to nine hours, as new research shows that people who sleep poorly are almost three times more likely to catch a cold.
The study, published earlier this month in the journal Nature Communications, did not give any reason for this, but it could be attributed to the greater proportion of women in this age group raising children.
Scientists collected the self-reported data from a game downloaded on smartphones called Sea Hero Quest.
The analysis included reports from more than 730,000 people in 63 countries.
The video game, which asked players how much sleep they usually get, aimed to gather information about the relationship between sleep duration and memory, as well as spatial navigation skills.
For example, one level of the game asked participants to memorize the locations of 1 to 5 checkpoints to be visited on a map.
After the map disappeared, users had to navigate a boat through a virtual environment to find the various checkpoints in a set order within a limited time.
People in Eastern European countries such as Albania, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic reported getting 20 to 40 minutes more sleep per night, while people in Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia got the least.
Women aged 19 to 35 saw their night’s rest drop from 7.4 hours to just seven hours over this period.
Meanwhile, men in this age group saw their sleep duration drop from an average of 7.3 hours per night to 6.8 hours.
The researchers said the decline in sleep in midlife could be due to the demands of childcare and work life
The decline slowed after the 35s until the early 50s, with females reaching about 6.9 hours and males 6.8 hours.
Finally, the average reported sleep duration increases again until age 70, when it is 7 hours for women and 7.1 hours for men.
Older adults performed best on memory tasks in the app, which was attributed to longer sleep time.
Seven hours of sleep was the optimal length for cognitive function.
The study says: “Such shortening of sleep into midlife has historically been associated with the demands of childcare and working life.
“The increase in sleep reported after age 53 is likely related to a reduction in child-rearing responsibilities and the mitigation of other factors that cause lower-midlife sleep.”
Source link
Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
