People sleep the least at the age of 40

1

A study by scientists from the Medical College of Georgia showed that the duration of human sleep varies following a U-shaped trajectory. And the bottom point, when people sleep the least in their lives, is the age of 40.

In early childhood, we sleep the longest, and then the duration of sleep gradually decreases, and by the age of 40 it becomes minimal. There is movement along a U-shaped trajectory, as established by American scientists. Moreover, the minimum indicators freeze somewhere between 30 and 50, where the lowest point is 40 years, and 50 years is the mark after which the duration of sleep begins to increase again.

At the same time, the authors of the study themselves believed that the increase in duration sleep will come after 60, so they were surprised by the results. Until recently, it was quite difficult to measure the average duration of sleep in a large population of people, because most often such studies were based on self-reporting, that is, people self-reported how much they sleep.

And with such a calculation, there is a high probability of error. And now the scientists achieved a representative sample and a wide coverage, because they used accelerometers. These “smart” bracelets evaluated the intensity of movements, so with their help it was possible to clearly determine how much time a person spends sleeping.

More than 11,000 Americans aged 6 years and older participated in the study. All of them wore accelerometers 24 hours a day, and this made it possible to determine how much time they spend on sleep and how good it is. The observation period was 7 days in a row. The most comprehensive data on how long representatives of different age categories sleep are obtained.