A new study suggests that people who spend more time in bed after a mild stroke or mini stroke may have more signs of brain damage and weaker thinking skills. This includes not just time spent sleeping, but also time lying in bed trying to fall asleep or staying in bed due to poor sleep quality.
The research was published on May 28, 2025, in Neurology®, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that sleeping too much or lying in bed too long causes brain damage or memory problems.
However, it does show that there may be a link between disturbed sleep patterns and poor brain health in people recovering from mild strokes or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), which are sometimes called “mini strokes.”
Dr. Joanna Wardlaw from the University of Edinburgh, who led the study, said this research helps us better understand how sleep might relate to brain health after a stroke. Many people already know that not getting enough sleep can harm health, but this study raises concerns about getting too much sleep or spending too much time in bed, even if some of that time is spent awake.
The study included 422 people from Edinburgh and Hong Kong. All of them were around 66 years old and had experienced a mild stroke or TIA.
Within one to three months after their stroke, they completed sleep questionnaires, underwent brain scans, and took tests to check their memory and thinking skills. On average, these people scored a 1 out of 4 on a stroke severity test, which means they had a very mild stroke.
The researchers looked closely at how long each person stayed in bed and how long they actually slept. People who stayed in bed for longer periods were more likely to show signs of small blood vessel damage in the brain.
This included more areas of white matter hyperintensities—damaged areas in the brain’s white matter that can lead to memory and thinking problems.
People who reported longer actual sleep durations (not just time in bed) were more likely to have microbleeds in the brain. These are tiny areas where small amounts of bleeding have occurred and are often linked to problems with blood vessels. They can be a warning sign for future strokes or cognitive decline.
The researchers believe these sleep patterns could be a sign of poor brain health. For example, someone who spends a lot of time in bed may have sleep apnea, insomnia, or another sleep disorder that disturbs their rest and affects their brain.
However, since this study only looked at people at a single point in time—not before and after their stroke—it can’t show whether their sleep problems caused the brain changes or if the brain damage affected their sleep.
There’s also another limitation: the researchers didn’t know how these people were sleeping before their stroke. It’s possible that some already had sleep issues that made them more likely to have a stroke in the first place.
Still, the findings suggest that watching how much time someone spends in bed after a stroke—and how well they sleep—could give doctors clues about their brain health. It also opens up the question of whether improving sleep after a stroke might help reduce the risk of long-term brain damage or even prevent another stroke.
Dr. Wardlaw says more studies are needed to confirm these findings. Future research should also explore whether similar links exist in people who have never had a stroke and whether better sleep could actually prevent memory problems or further damage in the brain.
In summary, this study suggests that spending too much time in bed—especially when combined with poor sleep—after a mild stroke or mini stroke could be linked to early signs of brain problems.
It raises awareness about the importance of healthy sleep habits in stroke recovery, but more research is needed to understand exactly how sleep and brain health are connected.
If you care about stroke, please read studies that diets high in flavonoids could help reduce stroke risk, and MIND diet could slow down cognitive decline after stroke.
For more health information, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce the risk of dementia, and tea and coffee may help lower your risk of stroke, dementia.
The research findings can be found in Neurology.
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