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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Older adults who were awake more during the night performed worse on cognitive tests the next day, no matter how long they slept [psu.edu]:

When it comes to sleep, traditional advice has focused on the number of hours a person sleeps. But for older adults, the quality of sleep may affect cognitive performance the following day regardless of their quantity of sleep, according to a new study by researchers from the Penn State College of Health and Human Development and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.

In a study published this week (Dec. 17) in Sleep Health [doi.org], the researchers found that the quality of a night of sleep — rather than the length of the night of sleep — predicted how quickly older adults processed information the next day. The researchers evaluated sleep quality based on how much time someone was awake between when they first went to sleep and when they rose in the morning.

[...] Few studies have examined how poor sleep impacts cognitive functioning the following day, according to Carol Derby, professor of neurology and epidemiology & population health, Louis and Gertrude Feil Faculty Scholar in Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and senior author of the study.

"Understanding the nuances of how sleep impacts older adults' cognition and their ability to perform daily activities may indicate which individuals are at risk for later cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer's disease," Derby said.

[...] When the researchers compared performance on cognitive tests not just to participants' own performance but across participants in the entire study sample, they found that older adults who, on average, spent more time awake during their night's sleep performed worse on three of the four cognitive tests. In addition to slower processing speed, participants with more wake time after falling asleep performed worse on two tests of visual working memory.

"Repeatedly waking after you've fallen asleep for the night diminishes the overall quality of your sleep," said Buxton, associate director of both the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Penn State Social Science Research Institute and an investigator in the Penn State Center for Healthy Aging. "We examined multiple aspects of sleep, and quality is the only one that made a day-to-day difference in cognitive performance."

[...] "My number one piece of advice is not to worry about sleep problems," Buxton said. "Worrying only creates stress that can disrupt sleep further. This does not mean that people should ignore sleep, though. There are research-validated interventions that can help you sleep better."

To promote healthy sleep, people should go to bed at a consistent time each night, aiming for a similar length of sleep in restful circumstances, Buxton continued.

"When it comes to sleep, no single night matters, just like no single day is critical to your exercise or diet," Buxton said. "What matters is good habits and establishing restful sleep over time."

[...] "The work demonstrating the day-to-day impact of sleep quality on cognition among individuals who do not have dementia suggests that disrupted sleep may have an early impact on cognitive health as we age," Derby said. "This finding suggests that improving sleep quality may help delay later onset of dementia."

Journal Reference: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2025.11.010 [doi.org]

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