A UK Biobank study published in PLOS Medicine on 17 September 2026 has linked more time spent in REM and deep sleep, not just total sleep duration, to a lower risk of dozens of diseases. Researchers led by Shengzhi Sun at Capital Medical University analysed wrist accelerometer data from 95,559 UK Biobank participants who wore the devices for seven consecutive nights, then tracked their hospital records for a median of 8.9 years. The team used a deep-learning algorithm to estimate REM sleep, deep sleep, light sleep, total sleep time and night-to-night irregularity, then checked each measure against more than 1,000 recorded health outcomes. People who logged an extra 47.6 minutes of REM sleep on average had a lower risk of 83 of those conditions, including a 26% lower risk of heart failure, a 46% lower risk of dementia and an 80% lower risk of Parkinson's disease. Deep sleep showed a smaller but still significant link to seven conditions, including type 2 diabetes and major depression.
What the researchers measured, and what they did not
The study is observational, so the authors state it cannot show that improving REM or deep sleep prevents disease, only that the two moved together in this population. Sleep was tracked with consumer-style wrist accelerometers over seven nights, not clinical polysomnography, and health outcomes came from inpatient hospital records only, which likely undercounts milder cases. Baseline health measures were taken around 5.7 years before the sleep recording, and the Biobank cohort skews toward healthier, mostly White European volunteers, limiting how far the findings generalise. Six to eight hours of total sleep was linked to the lowest disease risk overall; under five hours was linked to a higher risk of 37 conditions. The work was funded by Chinese national science grants, and the authors reported no competing interests.
What this means for your supplement routine
This research measured sleep stages captured by a wrist-worn device, not the effect of any product, so it cannot be used to support a claim that a supplement improves REM or deep sleep. The practical takeaway is that total hours in bed do not tell the whole story. Readers already reviewing their broader health spending can compare what is available through Perqen's full product catalogue.
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This article reports published news and research and is for information only. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet or medical care, and no product mentioned is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Speak to your GP or pharmacist before changing what you take, especially if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking prescribed medicines.