SAN ANTONIO – Getting older and more forgetful? It's probably because you're not getting enough sleep.

New research from The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore shows that older people not getting enough sleep significantly could accelerate the brain's aging process. The study says the effects of getting the right amount of good quality sleep can actually spell trouble for older adults.

The findings, published in the July edition of the journal SLEEP, suggest that older people not getting enough sleep could significantly accelerate the brain's aging process and are more likely to develop neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease.

"Our findings relate short sleep to a marker of brain aging," lead researcher Dr. June Lo said in a news release.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick Medical School, told Science Daily that, "Sleep is important for good health and mental wellbeing. Optimizing sleep at an older age may help to delay the decline in brain function seen with age, or indeed may slow or prevent the rapid decline that leads to dementia."

"Work done elsewhere suggests that seven hours a day for adults seems to be the sweet spot for optimal performance on computer based cognitive tests. In coming years we hope to determine what's good for cardio-metabolic and long term brain health too," Professor Michael Chee, Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke-NUS, said in a news release.

What's important is to pay attention to your physical needs and try to chart how much sleep keeps you feeling at your healthy best.