--- title: Less Sleep Pushes Brain to Age Faster description: Researchers find connection between sleep deprivation and a marker of aging brains canonical: https://time.com/2946814/less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-02T12:00:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:55:49.239Z article:section: Health og:title: Less Sleep Pushes Brain to Age Faster og:description: Researchers find connection between sleep deprivation and a marker of aging brains og:url: https://time.com/2946814/less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Less Sleep Pushes Brain to Age Faster twitter:description: Researchers find connection between sleep deprivation and a marker of aging brains twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Less Sleep Pushes Your Brain to Age Faster > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jul 2, 2014 12:00 PM UTC  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jul 2, 2014 12:00 PM UTC We know that sleep is important for a host of body functions, from weight control to brain activities, but the latest study hints that it may also keep aging processes in check. Scientists at the Duke-NUS Graduate School Singapore report in the journal _Sleep_ that among a group of 66 elderly Chinese volunteers, those who reported sleeping less each night on average showed swelling of a brain region indicating faster cognitive decline. The participants had MRI brain scans every two years, and answered questions about their sleep habits as well. Other studies have suggested that adults need about seven hours of sleep a night to maintain proper brain function; future research will investigate how sleep helps to preserve cognitive functions and hold off more rapid aging. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2946814/less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2946814/less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster/"},"headline":"Less Sleep Pushes Your Brain to Age Faster","datePublished":"2014-07-02T12:00:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:55:49.239Z","description":"Researchers find connection between sleep deprivation and a marker of aging brains","url":"https://time.com/2946814/less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster/","keywords":["Sleep","Aging","sleep deprivation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/sleep/","name":"Sleep"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2946814/less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster/","name":"Less Sleep Pushes Your Brain to Age Faster"}}]}] ```