Moderate nappers also had better cognitive performance than short nappers and extended nappers. On average, reductions in mental abilities of non-nappers, short nappers, and extended nappers were around four to six times greater than those of moderate nappers.
Read the full article here: Hour-long naps may boost mental ability for older adults
I decided to make this a separate post from the other I have written on wearable technologies in dementia care. These technologies, while super cool and having really interesting implications for understanding dementia, are less suitable for a person with dementia to be wearing as part of their daily life. But they do have some great implications for clinical use to get some insight into how a brain with dementia functions the same or differently than other brains.
This question was posed in a dementia forum the other day. I think it’s a good question not only for family members and care partners, but also for the wider public to hear. So many times, people think dementia is all about memory loss. Dementia is about a lot of cognitive changes, and memory loss is usually the most common. This Q&A helps to let care partners know about at least one change which is not unusual and helps the general public to realize that dementia is about more than forgetting.
My husband looked in the bathroom mirror this morning and asked “Who’s that?” I knew people with dementia got to where they couldn’t recognize OTHER people but never expected this. Is it “common”???
The study, which looked at almost 50,000 people, raises the prospect that people in their 40s and 50s do a better job of translating emotional signals from other people, while seniors have more overall knowledge. Young adults, meanwhile, think faster and have more short-term memory.
Brainpower Peaks in Different Ways as People Age, Study Finds.
Doctor Dementia and the Dementia Adventure 