A longer rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase is associated with a reduced risk of developing more than 80 different diseases, according to the authors of a large-scale study published in the journal PLOS Medicine. This was reported by Medical News Today, according to infohub.kz.
The study analyzed medical data from 95,559 adult residents of the United Kingdom from the UK Biobank database. The average age of participants was 56.2 years. To assess sleep quality, volunteers wore wrist accelerometers for one week, which allowed for more accurate tracking of the duration of different sleep phases and avoided the biases typical of self-reported surveys.
The researchers then monitored the health of participants for an average of about 8.9 years. The analysis showed that a longer REM sleep phase was associated with a reduced risk of 83 diseases, including heart failure, coronary heart disease, dementia, and multiple sclerosis. In turn, increased duration of deep sleep correlated with a lower likelihood of developing seven conditions, including type 2 diabetes, major depressive disorder, sleep apnea, and Parkinson's disease.
The researchers also found that the optimal total sleep duration is between 6 and 8 hours per day. Frequent awakenings at night and an irregular sleep schedule increased the likelihood of anxiety states, depression, and abdominal pain.
The authors note that the findings will help more precisely determine the impact of sleep structure on long-term human health.