A Huffington Post news report reveals several things that researchers discovered about sleep this year.
Skimping on sleep has been linked to a shrinking brain.
Our brains get smaller as we age, but getting too little sleep could make that natural reduction occur at a faster rate, according to University of Oxford research. “Many factors have previously been linked with the rate of change in brain volume over time — including physical activity, blood pressure and cholesterol levels,” lead researcher Claire Sexton, DPhil, previously told HuffPost Healthy Living. “Our study indicates that sleep is also an important factor.” The study found a faster decline in the size of the frontal, temporal and parietal areas of the brain among the people who reported poor sleep quality. These parts of the brain play important roles in making decisions, combining words into complete thoughts and learning. More research is needed to determine if lack of sleep actually causes the faster rate of brain shrinkage, but do you really want to risk it?
