Recent research has shown
the importance of sleep for a variety of health reasons, but new research is
showing that lack of sleep or waking up several times during the night may
increase your chances of developing Alzheimer’s.
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| Sleep |
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Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that creates
issues with thinking, behavior and memory. A sticky plaque called beta-amyloid
builds up in the spaces between the nerve cells, causing toxicity in the brain.
A study in the journal JAMA Neurology
has discovered that disrupted sleep can actually increase this plaque in the
brain.
Subjects over the age of
70 were studied as part of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Those who
reported getting the least amount of sleep (less than five hours per night) and
those who reported experiencing waking multiple times during the night were
discovered to have more beta-amyloid plaque buildup once imaging scans were
performed of their brains. This increased buildup could be a key indicator for
Alzheimer’s disease risk.
Sleep
studies have also discovered that those with sleep apnea (a sleep disorder that
is characterized by pausing in breathing during sleep) have double the risk of
developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The good news is that troubled
sleep or trouble staying asleep (also known as sleep maintenance insomnia) is
treatable, and this new information could be vital in protecting seniors’
brains. The average adult should be getting seven to eight hours of sleep per
night. It is well known that troubled sleep causes difficulties in focus and
learning the following day, and we are coming to find out this could be related
to dying brain cells.
This importance of this
work lies in overwhelming amount of expected Alzheimer’s cases to develop in
the coming years as the baby boomer generation will be approaching their 70’s.
More than 5 million Americans have already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
disease, and that number is expected to climb to more than double in the United
States by the year 2050, and according to the World Health Organization, more
than triple globally, reaching an estimated 115.4 million cases.
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| Disrupted Sleep Could Increase the Risk for Alzheimer's |
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