Prolonged sleep in older adults may increase the risk of dementia

Older adults who started to sleep more than nine hours a night — after previously not doing so — more than doubled their risk of developing dementia a decade later, new research reports. The increased risk wasn’t seen in people who had always slept more than nine hours. The researchers suggest that as Alzheimer’s-related changes begin in the brain, people may inadvertently sleep longer as their bodies attempt to remove the abnormalities, but additional research is needed.