The Importance of Sleep in Aging

publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Judith Carroll

Primary Institution: University of California, Los Angeles

Sleep is important for physiological restoration throughout the body and may influence biological aging.

Improving sleep may slow the aging process and enhance biological restoration.

Insomnia is related to biomarkers of aging including shortened telomere length and older epigenetic age.
Experimentally restricting sleep in older adults led to increased DNA damage response.
Treating insomnia in older adults resulted in lower transcripts for cellular senescence.

Getting good sleep helps our bodies heal and stay healthy as we get older, while not sleeping well can make us age faster.

The study examined the effects of sleep on biological aging through biomarkers and gene expression changes.

Many unknowns still exist regarding the mechanisms of how sleep affects biological aging.

Older adults were studied regarding their sleep patterns and biological aging.

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