Sleeping Too Much? It May Be a Sign of Increased Dementia Risk

Are you sleeping too much?

Sleeping more than nine hours a day may be an early sign of degeneration of the brain and signify an increased risk of dementia in older people, according to a study published in Neurology^®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
“We found that when older people transitioned from regularly sleeping less than nine hours to sleeping more than nine hours, they had an increased risk of developing dementia 10 years later,” said study author Sudha Seshadri, MD, of Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, Mass., and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. “We also showed that those who had regularly slept more than nine hours in the past and simply maintained that level of sleep did not have an increased risk.”