From interestingengineering.com
Researchers created a system employing machine learning to forecast a person's sleep age
The importance of sleep quality on human health is undoubtedly a huge thing. Every sleepless night can make the next day miserable. In addition to being sleepless, if your sleep is interrupted at night, your health may be under threat.
Disruption of sleep patterns and increased sleep interruptions could be determining factors in shortening human lifespan, says recent research led by Stanford University.
The research was published in Digital Medicine on July 22.
A total of 12.000 studies that each focused on a person and reported features of their sleep, such as chin and leg movement, breathing, and heartbeat, were analysed by sleep specialist Emmanuel Mignot, MD, Ph.D., and his colleagues.
Researchers created a system employing machine learning to forecast a person's "sleep age."
Their objective was to create a system that can determine a person's sleep age and pinpoint the sleep patterns that are most closely associated with mortality.
Why is sleep age that significant?
Before the significance of sleep age, we need to learn about what sleep age is. Sleep age roughly means a projected age that correlates to a person's health based on their sleep quality.
More to explain if needed, while we sleep, not only does our brain undergo an automatic program, but also our heart rate and breathing change. Changes in these parameters might serve as early warning signs of a health problem, the study underlines.
Apart from these, there are simple things we can do to improve our sleep age. For instance, getting the necessary sunlight during the day, exercising regularly but not too close to bedtime, not drinking alcohol and caffeine around bedtime, and avoiding heavy night-time meals all contribute to healthy sleep.
The strongest predictor of mortality
"Our main finding was that sleep fragmentation — when people wake up multiple times throughout the night for less than a minute without remembering it — was the strongest predictor of mortality," says Emmanuel Mignot.
"Though we see a link in the data, how it contributes to mortality is unknown. This is different from a person realizing they were waking up, which happens during sleep disorders such as insomnia."
What will be the next step?
Emmanuel Mignot and his team are currently working with scientists from Harvard University. Studies on 250.000 people will help to collect more data.
https://interestingengineering.com/health/sleep-quality-mortality-lifespan-study
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