(Image source from: Is erratic sleep affecting your memory function})

Are you in your 40s and have slight difficulty in remembering things? You may be having memory problems. Don't blame it on age. It's caused by lack of sleep or erratic sleep habit due to odd working hours or late night parties.

People in their 40s cannot afford to miss on their crucial sleep without suffering from its side effects. Erratic sleep habits from middle age to older age is likely to affect your memory function. So its advisable to change your extreme sleep habit.

A recent study revealed that women who slept for five hours or even lesser in midlife or later in life had memory problems than the women who slept for at least seven hours each night.

The study was conducted on 15,263 women participants, who were nurses. The participants were free of stroke and depression when they were assessed at the first instance.

During the study it was found that women whose sleep duration was reduced by more than two hours each day  had memory issues over time, compared to the women whose sleep duration was not changed, said Elizabeth Devore, an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), in the US.

Sleeping habits plan an important role in preserving memory into later life. Maintaing an 'average' sleep duration,  seven hours per day, may facilitate maintainence of memory in later life.

The research, which was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, stated that extreme changes in sleep duration seems to influence memory negatively in older adults.

Now that you have an additional reason (beauty and memory) to sleep for seven hours you should feel sufficiently motivated to get the required hours of rest at night.

(AW: Pratima Tigga)