How sleep can impact your memory?

Both the amount of time we sleep and the quality of sleep we have is very important.

The following research investigated how sleep deficiency and sleep disturbance may affect the risk for dementia and all-cause mortality (Robbins R, et al., 2021).

2812 participants in the USA age 65 years old or older were included. The study was carried out over 5 years. This is what the researchers found.

The participants who reported getting fewer than five hours of sleep per night were twice as likely to develop dementia compared to those who had seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

Taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep increased the risk of dementia by 45 percent.

Difficulty staying alert during the day, napping regularly and sleeping 5 hours or less were associated with all-cause mortality.

It looks like all research in this area points out the importance of getting enough sleep.

Reference:

Rebecca Robbins, Stuart F Quan, Matthew D Weaver, Gregory Bormes, Laura K Barger, Charles A Czeisler, Examining sleep deficiency and disturbance and their risk for incident dementia and all-cause mortality in older adults across 5 years in the United States, Aging (Albany NY). 2021 Feb 11;13(3):3254-3268.

 

L-Theanine is an amino acid found in tea and is one of the reasons for the beneficial effects of green tea.

200mg of L-Theanine has been found to improve sleep quality.

Research has shown that daily doses ranging from 200 to 400 mg of L-Theanine produced anti-stress effects.