Older people with sleep problems may face more memory and attention difficulties, a new study suggests.

According to the findings, not getting enough sleep, or getting too much, can lead to memory issues and problems with executive functioning, which are mental processes required to perform activities such as managing time, planning, paying attention, organising and strategising.

Scientists in the UK assessed the sleep of over 8,700 men and women over a one-month period. The participants' cognitive (brain) function was also assessed.

The study found a link between sleep and brain function as people age.

For example, in people aged between 50 and 64, sleeping less than six hours per night or more than eight hours was associated with lower cognitive function scores.

In those aged between 65 and 89, these lower scores were only found in those who slept longer hours.

When it came to the quality of a person's sleep, in younger adults, this did not appear to impact cognitive function, however in adults over the age of 65, those with poor sleep quality scored worse.

"Sleep is important for good health and mental wellbeing. Optimising 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," suggested the scientists from the University of Warwick.

They added that if poor sleep causes cognitive problems as we age, ‘non-pharmacological improvements in sleep may provide an alternative low-cost and more accessible public health intervention to delay or slow the rate of cognitive decline'.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, PLOS ONE.