Key points from article :
Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine find that sleeping more than 9 hours per night is associated with smaller brain and gray matter volume in older Hispanic adults.
Hispanics have up to 4 times the risk of Alzheimer's disease as non-Hispanic whites, so sleep studies are particularly important for this group.
The study recruited 2,334 Hispanic participants, ages 35 to 85, to undergo neuroimaging and self-report sleep duration.
Using MRI, researchers found that increased sleep was associated with smaller brain volume and smaller regions of gray and occipital matter, especially in those 50 and older.
One possible explanation is that long sleep duration is a marker for underlying cardiovascular or psychological conditions.
Individuals who sleep for more than nine hours or have other sleep issues should talk with a doctor, as it could be an indicator of an underlying medical problem.
The research was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia
