REAL LIFE NEWS: STAYING IN BED IS BAD FOR YOU. OH NO!
by Hazed
While on the subject of sleep, the UK’s favorite source for shock horror medical stories, the Daily Mail, tells us that having a weekend lie-in is bad for you. Oh no!
Researchers studied 2,700 people in their sixties and seventies over a three year period, asking them to keep detailed records of their sleeping patterns. At the start of the study, their mental states were all assessed, and then again at the end of the study, using a test designed to assess changes in brain function.
Analysing the results, all of the participants had lower scores on the test at the end than at the beginning. But the decline in brain function was the greatest in those that were classified as long sleepers, getting over nine hours of shut-eye each night.
Oh dear!
But it’s too early to give up the lie-ins, because – as I keep on saying – correlation does not equal causation. Just because there’s a link between sleeping a lot and losing brain function, it doesn’t mean that one causes the other. It could be the other way around: losing brain function might lead you to sleep more. Or there could be some unknown factor that affects them both.
So I shall continue to enjoy my weekend lie-ins.
