A new study that tracked more than 95,000 adults showed that more REM sleep and getting six to eight hours of sleep a night were both linked to a lower risk of dozens of diseases — including heart failure, dementia and Alzheimer's.
Getting enough sleep is important for your health—but the type of sleep you get may matter, too.
Researchers tracked more than 95,000 adults who wore wrist monitors for seven days and nights, measuring REM, deep, and light sleep.
Over the next nine years, they checked health records for links to more than 1,000 different diseases.
The results: more REM sleep was linked to a lower risk of 83 diseases, including heart failure, dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.
More deep sleep was tied to lower risk of seven conditions, including type 2 diabetes, major depression and sleep apnea.
REM sleep is when most dreaming happens, while deep sleep is the most restorative stage.
The findings also underscore the importance of getting six to eight hours of sleep a night. People who hit that mark had the lowest odds of 69 conditions, while those who slept less than five hours had the highest odds of 37.
This was an observational study, so it can't prove sleep patterns cause disease—only that they're connected. More research is needed to understand why.
Source: PLOS Medicine
Author Affiliations: Peking University, Capital Medical University, Beijing Laboratory of Allergic Diseases
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