{"id":116621,"date":"2026-09-24T06:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=116621"},"modified":"2026-09-24T06:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:04:27","slug":"rem-sleep-83-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bgodinspired-news\/bgodinspired-health-news\/rem-sleep-83-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"More REM Sleep Linked to Lower Risk of 83 Diseases, With One Big Catch"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>8 Minute, 54 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p>If you wear a sleep tracker, you have probably seen it. A little bar on your phone each morning that says how much <strong>REM sleep<\/strong> you got. Most of us glance at it and move on.<\/p>\n\n<p>A new study says that little bar may matter more than we thought. Researchers followed 95,559 people who wore wrist trackers for a week. Almost nine years later, the people who got more REM sleep had a lower risk of 83 different diseases.<\/p>\n\n<p>That is a big headline. But the study has a catch that most reports skipped. And the catch turns out to be one of the most useful parts.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What the REM Sleep Study Actually Found<\/h2>\n\n<p>The study was led by Shengzhi Sun and a team at Capital Medical University in Beijing. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosmedicine\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pmed.1005213\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published in PLOS Medicine<\/a> on 17 September 2026.<\/p>\n\n<p>The people in it were part of the UK Biobank, a huge health project in Britain. Their average age was about 56. Each one wore a tracker on the wrist for seven days and nights. A computer program then looked at their movement and estimated how much time they spent in each stage of sleep: light, deep and REM.<\/p>\n\n<p>REM is the dreaming stage. Your eyes dart around under your eyelids. Your brain is very busy. Most of your muscles go still, so you don&#8217;t act out your dreams.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then the team watched what happened to these people&#8217;s health, for a median of 8.9 years. They checked more than 1,000 conditions. Here is what stood out:<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>REM sleep<\/strong> was linked to a lower risk of 83 diseases. For every extra 48 minutes or so of REM, the risk of heart failure was about a quarter lower. The risk of dementia was about half.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deep sleep<\/strong> was linked to a lower risk of 7 conditions, including type 2 diabetes and major depression.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total sleep<\/strong> worked best in a middle range. Risk was lowest at about 6 to 8 hours a night. Sleeping less than 5 hours was linked to higher risk of 37 conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>If you have ever lain awake wondering why your mind won&#8217;t switch off, this is worth knowing: the night is not wasted time. A lot is happening in it.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"c87e3ed518\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/c87e3ed518\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>The Catch: What &#8220;83 Diseases&#8221; Does Not Mean<\/h2>\n\n<p>The researchers said this plainly themselves. This kind of study cannot prove that sleep causes the lower risk. It can only show that the two go together.<\/p>\n\n<p>Here is the part that did not make most headlines. The team ran a second test. They ignored every illness that showed up in the first two years after people wore the tracker. Why? Because sometimes a disease starts quietly, years before anyone names it, and it can change your sleep long before you feel sick.<\/p>\n\n<p>When they did that, only about 60% of the links still held. Of 156 links across all the sleep measures, 95 were left.<\/p>\n\n<p>That tells us something. Some of the time, poor REM sleep may not be causing illness. It may be an early <em>signal<\/em> of an illness that has already started.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Parkinson&#8217;s number is a good example. In this study, more REM sleep went with a much lower risk of Parkinson&#8217;s. The paper does not explain why. But doctors have long known that one REM sleep problem, where people act out their dreams, can show up years before Parkinson&#8217;s is found. So part of that link could be the disease showing up early in sleep, not sleep protecting against the disease.<\/p>\n\n<p>There are two more things to keep in mind:<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A wrist tracker can&#8217;t see your brain.<\/strong> It measures movement. The authors say the sleep stages should be read as &#8220;movement-based estimates rather than exact physiological sleep stages.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>The people were healthier than average.<\/strong> People who volunteer for big studies like this one tend to be. So the results may not fit everyone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>None of this makes the study useless. It is still one of the largest looks ever at sleep stages in daily life. It just means your sleep may be doing two jobs at once: helping to protect you, and telling you how you are really doing.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Why REM Sleep Lives at the End of the Night<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here is something that makes REM sleep different from the other stages. Your night runs in cycles. Early in the night, you get more deep sleep. As the night goes on, the REM parts get longer. So a large share of your REM comes in the last few hours before you wake.<\/p>\n\n<p>That means the hour you cut is usually a REM hour. If you go to bed late and your alarm still goes off at the same time, you lose REM first.<\/p>\n\n<p>Alcohol can get in the way too. It is well known to hold back REM sleep, especially in the first part of the night.<\/p>\n\n<p>We looked at the <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/health-and-wellness\/caffeine-and-deep-sleep\/\">way caffeine eats into deep sleep<\/a> recently. REM has its own weak spot, and it is the end of the night.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Simple Ways to Protect Your REM Sleep<\/h2>\n\n<p>None of these cost money or need a tracker:<\/p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Protect the last hours.<\/strong> If you can, go to bed a little earlier rather than hoping to sleep in. The end of the night is where REM lives.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep a steady wake-up time.<\/strong> Your body settles into cycles more easily when mornings stay the same.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Go easy on evening drinks.<\/strong> Less alcohol close to bedtime leaves more room for REM.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aim for the middle.<\/strong> In this study, risk was lowest at around 6 to 8 hours. You don&#8217;t need a perfect night. You need enough nights that are good enough. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/health-and-wellness\/how-much-sleep-do-you-need\/\">look at how much sleep you really need<\/a> goes deeper on that range.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Notice big changes.<\/strong> If your sleep changes a lot and stays that way, or if you or your partner notice you acting out dreams, tell a doctor or health worker if you can. Your sleep may be trying to tell you something.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re not sure what is keeping you awake, our free <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/why-cant-i-sleep\/\">Why Can&#8217;t I Sleep? assessment<\/a> takes a couple of minutes and points you to the likely cause.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The Part of Sleep You Can&#8217;t Do Yourself<\/h2>\n\n<p>There is one more thing in this study that is easy to miss. The paper doesn&#8217;t say <em>how<\/em> REM sleep might protect the body. The link is there. The reason is still unknown.<\/p>\n\n<p>And you can&#8217;t make REM happen. You can&#8217;t try harder at it. You can only lie down, let go, and let it come.<\/p>\n\n<p>There is a very old story about how God works that sounds a lot like this. A farmer scatters seed on the ground. Then he goes to bed. He gets up, goes to bed again, night after night. And the seed grows, and he does not know how. His part was to plant and to rest. The growing happened while he slept.<\/p>\n\n<p>Maybe that is not a bad way to think about the night. Some of the most important work in your life may happen while you are doing nothing at all.<\/p>\n\n<p>So tonight, put the phone down a little earlier. Leave room for the last hours. The tracker can tell you how you slept. It can&#8217;t do the sleeping for you. That part is a gift you get to receive.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Questions People Ask About REM Sleep<\/h2>\n\n<h3>What is REM sleep?<\/h3>\n<p>REM sleep is the stage of sleep when most dreaming happens. REM stands for rapid eye movement, because the eyes move quickly under closed eyelids. During REM sleep the brain is very active, while most of the body&#8217;s muscles stay still. REM periods get longer as the night goes on, so much of a person&#8217;s REM sleep comes in the last few hours before waking.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Is more REM sleep linked to lower disease risk?<\/h3>\n<p>A 2026 study in PLOS Medicine of 95,559 UK Biobank participants found that more REM sleep, estimated from wrist trackers, was linked to lower risk of 83 diseases over about nine years, including heart failure and dementia. The study was observational, so it cannot prove REM sleep causes the lower risk. When illnesses from the first two years were set aside, only about 60% of the study&#8217;s sleep-disease links still held.<\/p>\n\n<h3>How accurate are sleep trackers at measuring REM sleep?<\/h3>\n<p>Wrist sleep trackers estimate sleep stages from movement, and some also use heart rate. They cannot measure brain waves the way a sleep lab can. The authors of a 2026 UK Biobank sleep study said tracker-based sleep stages should be treated as movement-based estimates rather than exact measurements. Trackers are useful for spotting patterns over many nights, not for judging one night.<\/p>\n\n<h3>How can I get more REM sleep naturally?<\/h3>\n<p>Because REM sleep is concentrated in the later part of the night, the simplest way to protect it is to avoid cutting sleep short, often by going to bed a little earlier rather than waking earlier. A steady wake-up time helps sleep cycles settle. Alcohol near bedtime is known to reduce REM sleep. Getting about 6 to 8 hours of sleep leaves room for full REM cycles.<\/p>\n\n<h3>How much sleep is linked to the lowest disease risk?<\/h3>\n<p>In a 2026 study of 95,559 adults who wore wrist trackers, disease risk was lowest for people who slept about 6 to 8 hours a night. Sleeping less than 5 hours was linked to a higher risk of 37 conditions. Both too little and very long sleep can be signs worth mentioning to a health worker.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What Do You Think?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what we&#8217;re curious about: do sleep trackers help people rest better, or do they make us worry more about sleep? Tell us which side you land on in the comments.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"c87e3ed518\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/c87e3ed518\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Share This<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;A study of 95,559 people linked more REM sleep to lower risk of 83 diseases. The catch: some of those links may be early warning signs, not causes. Your sleep might be telling you something. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bgodinspired-news\/bgodinspired-health-news\/rem-sleep-83-diseases\/&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t know most REM sleep happens in the last few hours of the night. So the hour I cut with my alarm is the dreaming hour. Going to bed earlier this week. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bgodinspired-news\/bgodinspired-health-news\/rem-sleep-83-diseases\/&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;You can&#8217;t force yourself into REM sleep. You can only lie down and let go. Weirdly, that&#8217;s the most encouraging thing I&#8217;ve read about sleep in a while. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bgodinspired-news\/bgodinspired-health-news\/rem-sleep-83-diseases\/&#8221;<\/em><\/p>        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"116621\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\" title=\"\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n                        Happy                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"twp-count-percent\">\n                                                    <span style=\"display: none;\" 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Here is what it really shows, the catch most reports missed, and how to protect it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bgodinspired-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116622,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116621\/revisions\/116622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}