People sleep for the shortest durations during the period between their mid-30s and mid-50s, according to a new study led by University College London (UCL), University of East Anglia and University of Lyon researchers, published in Nature Communications.
The duration of sleep is lower in this age group than among those who are younger and older. The duration declines in early adulthood until age 33, and then picks up again at age 53, according to the study.
The study was conducted on 730,187 participants. They came from 63 countries, and the findings also showed how sleep patterns differ between countries.
The participants were asked to play a mobile game called Sea Hero Quest. Designed for neuroscience research, it was created by Deutsche Telekom in partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK, UCL, UEA and game developers Glitchers. The game aims to help Alzheimer’s research by testing the navigational abilities of participants, who are also asked to answer various questions that can be useful to neuroscience research, such as on sleep patterns.
The study found that people sleep an average of 7.01 hours per night, and that women on average sleep 7.5 minutes longer than men. The youngest study participants (minimum age 19) slept the most. Sleep durations kept declining during the 20s and early 30s and then plateaued until the early 50s, at which point it started to increase again. The pattern was the same for men and women, and across countries, UCL said in a press release.
People in Eastern European countries (Albania, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic) slept the most while those in South East Asian countries (Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia) slept the least. People tended to sleep a bit less in countries closer to the equator, the release said.
“We found that across the globe, people sleep less during mid-adulthood, but average sleep duration varies between regions and between countries,” the release quoted lead researcher Professor Hugo Spiers as saying.