In 95,559 people, more REM sleep tracked a lower risk of 83 later diseases

What the research found

Study (observational cohort). Jingsong Luo, Shengzhi Sun, Rui Chen, and colleagues report in PLOS Med. (17 September 2026; doi 10.1371/journal.pmed.1005213; ScienceDaily 23 September 2026). Wrist accelerometers worn for seven nights by 95,559 UK Biobank participants were scored with a deep-learning model for REM, deep, and light sleep, total duration, wakefulness after sleep onset, and night-to-night irregularity. Follow-up lasted a median of 8.9 years, against more than 1,000 disease outcomes. Per interquartile range of REM (47.6 minutes), more REM sleep lined up with lower risk of 83 diseases, including heart failure (hazard ratio 0.74), dementia (0.54), and Parkinson disease (0.20). More deep sleep lined up with lower risk of 7 conditions, including type 2 diabetes and major depressive disorder. More irregular sleep and more wakefulness after sleep onset lined up with higher risk of several conditions, including anxiety and substance use disorders. Total sleep showed a U-shaped pattern for many diseases, with the lowest risk mostly inside 6 to 8 hours; sleeping under 5 hours lined up with higher risk of 37 conditions. After Bonferroni correction, 156 sleep-pattern associations remained. The authors describe the 6-to-8-hour window as a safeguard pattern for middle-aged and older adults. This cannot show that changing sleep stages causes fewer diseases. Educational research notes.

Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.

Read the original at PLOS Medicine / ScienceDaily