Sleeping Your Brain Younger

Hi Everybody

Those who have been on the Forum for a while have probably heard of this, but many new members may have not -

http://blogs.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/ ... lbt_072911

plus it provides an introduction to WebMD for those who have not yet come across this on-line resource

cheers

Mars

I wonder if they screened the participants for SBDs. That might explain why the folks who spent longer in bed had poorer averages on the tests.

Quote from the link:

The study tracked men and women over five years and consistently asked them to perform memory, vocabulary, and logic tests.

The study showed that people who got too little or too much sleep showed a loss in brain function that was like aging 4 to 7 years!

Well, duh!

Warning: I didn't see a link to the original study, so it might have better info. What comes out after you filter "science" through the news media is often pretty badly changed. However:

They seem to be saying "People who get too much sleep, get brain damage."

I don't see anything that supports that conclusion vs. "Many people who get brain damage from other causes tend to sleep more."

Presumably they have some data that correlates brain damage with excess sleep. How do you decide whether the sleep causes brain damage or the brain damage causes more sleep? Don't many people with brain diseases or injury sleep a lot more?

Notes: Yes, I know the study also discussed too little sleep as well. Apply the same arguments above to too little sleep as well.

Some people may object to the term "brain damage." It may not be politically correct, but the brain doesn't function as well as it did before. "Not functioning as well" means "damage" to me.

That article never mentions 'damage', which is normally ascribed to physical trauma of one kind or another, not at all something that too much or too little sleep is related to (unless it is in an individual case). You can't arbitrarily decide to argue about brain damage when it was not mentioned to begin with.

"They seem to be saying "People who get too much sleep, get brain damage."

"I don't see anything that supports that conclusion vs. "Many people who get brain damage from other causes tend to sleep more."

But while they might seem to be saying that to you, they haven't said it so your arguing that nothing supports your conclusion re 'brain damage' is out of thin air - you're arguing with yourself I think.

Otter wrote:I wonder if they screened the participants for SBDs. That might explain why the folks who spent longer in bed had poorer averages on the tests.

I think the Otter is on the right track. People with undiagnosed OSA could very well spend more hours sleeping, trying (in vain) to feel more rested. The extra hours they sleep is just that much more suffocation time. More hours spent depriving the brain of oxygen.

Julie wrote:That article never mentions 'damage', which is normally ascribed to physical trauma of one kind or another, not at all something that too much or too little sleep is related to (unless it is in an individual case). You can't arbitrarily decide to argue about brain damage when it was not mentioned to begin with.

"They seem to be saying "People who get too much sleep, get brain damage."

"I don't see anything that supports that conclusion vs. "Many people who get brain damage from other causes tend to sleep more."

But while they might seem to be saying that to you, they haven't said it so your arguing that nothing supports your conclusion re 'brain damage' is out of thin air - you're arguing with yourself I think.

If your brain is no longer functioning as well as it used to, it's damaged, isn't it?

"A study by public health scientists has revealed that getting too much or too little sleep can prematurely age your brain by up to seven years. " Seven years of premature aging sure sounds like damage to me. Doesn't that meet your definition of damage? Do you think aging doesn't damage the brain?

Yes, definitely, but it's just not the accepted use of the term 'brain damage' and can be misleading if used in that way, plus the article did not use it, and your arguing about seems a bit pointless, rather than addressing what was actually said.

Julie wrote:Yes, definitely, but it's just not the accepted use of the term 'brain damage' and can be misleading if used in that way, plus the article did not use it, and your arguing about seems a bit pointless, rather than addressing what was actually said.

You've taken the trouble to post twice to argue semantics about an issue you agree is technically correct, but that I shouldn't have brought up in the first point because it's irrelevant.

Personally, I think the idea that sleep problems do damage your brain is an important idea to get across. Many people tend to think sleep apena and other sleep problems are just minor annoyances and ignore them until something really bad happens.

Breathe Jimbo wrote:Quote from the link:

The study tracked men and women over five years and consistently asked them to perform memory, vocabulary, and logic tests.

The study showed that people who got too little or too much sleep showed a loss in brain function that was like aging 4 to 7 years!

Well, duh!

Logic win.