REM sleep linked to lower risk of 83 diseases in large study

A large-scale study involving nearly 96,000 participants from the UK Biobank has linked increased rapid eye movement (REM) sleep to a lower risk of 83 different diseases. The research, published in PLOS Medicine, tracked participants for a median of 8.9 years using wrist-monitor data to analyze various sleep stages, including REM, deep, and light sleep.

Researchers identified 156 statistically significant associations between sleep characteristics and newly diagnosed health conditions. The most notable findings involved REM sleep; for every 47.6-minute increase in REM duration, participants showed significantly lower risks for several conditions. These included a 26% lower relative rate of heart failure, a 46% lower risk of dementia, and an 80% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.

In addition to REM sleep, the study noted that longer deep sleep and more regular sleep patterns of six to eight hours per night were also associated with health benefits. However, researchers cautioned that because this was an observational study, it cannot definitively establish that specific sleep patterns directly prevent illness.