Mixed
Self-reported sleep quality is NOT associated with neural health (white matter integrity) in healthy adults, despite associations in clinical populations.
Don't panic about occasional poor sleep causing permanent brain damage. This study found no link between self-reported sleep quality and white matter integrity in healthy adults. While clinical sleep disorders are serious, healthy sleep variations do not appear to harm brain structure.
Notably, we do not observe associations between self-reported sleep quality and white matter.
Why this rating
Large neuroimaging sample (n=641), use of Bayesian regression to quantify evidence for the null, and focus on a healthy population make this a high-confidence null result.
Source
How are age-related differences in sleep quality associated with health outcomes? An epidemiological investigation in a UK cohort of 2406 adults
Andrew Gadie et al. · BMJ Open · 2017
DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014920
More from this paper
- Better self-reported sleep quality is associated with better mental health outcomes, specifically showing a U-shaped relationship where both short and long sleep durations correlate with higher depression and anxiety.Good
- Poor sleep quality is modestly but consistently associated with poorer cognitive performance, particularly verbal phonemic fluency, across the entire adult lifespan (18-98 years).Good
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This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →