Here’s the sleep news for this week:
Sleep impacts the benefit of exercise
Researchers discovered people with more frequent, higher-intensity physical activity who slept less than six hours a night on average had a faster overall cognitive decline than short sleepers who exercised infrequently. The new study was published in the Lancet Healthy Longevity journal; it found that people who had higher levels of physical activity and also slept between six and eight hours per night had better cognitive function as they aged. Additionally, results showed that being less physically active and sleeping poorly were independently associated with worse cognitive performance over time. They also found sleeping fewer than six hours a night was linked with faster rate of cognitive decline over time.
Light exposure before sleep may raise gestational diabetes risk
Greater exposure to environmental light before sleep during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for gestational diabetes, according to study results presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. For this study, researchers looked to assess the relationship between evening light exposure prior to sleep during pregnancy, and the occurrence of gestational diabetes. Participants kept a daily sleep diary and wore a wrist actigraphy monitor (a type of sleep monitor). The time was averaged over valid days of recording and participants were categorized in three groups according to time exposed to light (“high,” “medium,” and “low”).
Compared with women with a low duration of pre-sleep light exposure, women in the high and medium groups had an increased risk for gestational diabetes. Women in the high group also had more daytime light, which could account for why they were less likely to be late or fragmented sleepers.
In more fun sleep news…
Disney’s upcoming life simulation adventure game, Disney Dreamlight Valley, lets you interact with beloved characters across the Disney franchise like never before, but depending on the time of day, you may find them sleeping. The new game has built in sleep time for characters simulating real life. While in real life we need seven to nine hours of sleep, Disney has set its characters’ sleep schedule for four hours a day.
In social media news…
Mark Zuckerberg says he’s dialed into his sleep to get seven to eight hours of sleep, on the newly launched Threads app.
