A team of Chinese researchers found that healthy and successful aging is determined by sleep patterns.
The team from China’s Wenzhou Medical University defined successful aging as the absence of major chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease and stroke; having good cognitive and mental health; and without any physical impairment.
Studies have suggested maintaining consistent and adequate sleep time to promote healthy aging.
“The findings underscore the critical importance of monitoring dynamic changes in sleep duration in middle-aged and older adults,” the team said in a paper published in the journal BMC Public Health.
In the study, the team analyzed 3,306 participants who were free of major chronic diseases in 2011 and had reached age 60 or older by 2020.
The team combined nighttime sleep and daytime naps to calculate total daily sleep hours in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
The researchers identified five different patterns of sleep duration: normal-constant (26.1 percent of participants), long-constant (26.7 percent), decreasing (7.3 percent), increasing (13.7 percent), and short-constant (26.2 percent). percent) percent).
People with increased and shorter stable sleep trajectories exhibit significantly lower odds of successful aging. Decreased sleep patterns also showed decreased odds.