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People with poor objective sleep quality exhibit unfavourable physical health indicators, particularly elevated blood pressure, a study has found. Objective sleep quality consists not only of the total sleep duration, but also the amount of the different sleep stages, the duration of wake period, and the frequency of awakenings. Researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan conducted a comprehensive study involving 100 adults aged 3059 years by employing electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements to assess sleep quality for five nights at the participants' homes. Electroencephalography is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. Additionally, detailed health examinations were conducted at a health care facility in Tokyo. Ten sleep parameters derived from the EEG data collected during the five-night home study were used to categorise participants into three groupsnamely, the good sleep group (comprising 39 participants), the intermed
According to a new study conducted by academics at UCL and the University of the Republic in Uruguay, daytime napping may assist to protect brain function by slowing the speed at which our brains shrink as we age.The study, published in the journal Sleep Health, analysed data from people aged 40 to 69 and found a causal link between habitual napping and larger total brain volume - a marker of good brain health linked to a lower risk of dementia and other diseases.Senior author Dr Victoria Garfield (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL) said: "Our findings suggest that, for some people, short daytime naps may be a part of the puzzle that could help preserve the health of the brain as we get older."Previous research has shown that napping has cognitive benefits, with people who have had a short nap performing better in cognitive tests in the hours afterwards than counterparts who did not nap.The new study aimed to establish if there was a causal relationship between ...