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Past studies that linked lack of sleep to dementia have involved small numbers of participants, included assessment of sleep duration only in later life, relied on self-reports of sleep duration, and had follow-up durations of only about 1 decade. In two new studies, researchers assessed the long-term relation of sleep and dementia and a possible mechanism that links them.
In one study, researchers assessed sleep duration (beginning at age 50) in 8000 people who were followed for a mean 25 years. Accuracy of self-reported sleep duration was confirmed by accelerometry. Compared with people who averaged 7 hours of sleep nightly at ages 50 and 60, those who averaged 6 hours nightly at those ages were significantly more likely to develop dementi…