If you’re struggling to get good nights sleep and thinking you should learn to live with your sleeping problems – think again. Findings appearing in the journal Science are some of the first to tie sleep deprivation symptoms to developing Alzheimer’s disease, the most common, most destructive form of dementia.
Even though a good part of the work was done using mice, it offers some interesting insights into the role of sleep and this memory-robbing disease in people.
Researchers at St. Louis’ Barnes-Jewish Hospital examined levels of a protein known to accumulate in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s – amyloid beta. This protein is thought to cause plaques to accumulate in the brain, leading to cell death and the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Using mice genetically engineered to have a version of this most common form of dementia, the scientists saw that beta-amyloid levels went up in the brain when the mice were awake and fell when they were sleeping.
Keeping the mice from sleeping made things worse. When the mice were made to stay awake for 20 hours a day, they developed 25% more plaques in their brains. “Sleep deprivation markedly accelerated amyloid-beta plaque formation,” explains Dr. David Holtzman, a researcher on the study.
This has the team wondering if sleeping longer could keep all those plaques from forming, maybe even block them altogether.
The team also tried helping the mice sleep with a medication that’s being tested now for insomnia. Called Almorexant, it’s able to cut the amount of plaque-forming protein. The team injected orexin (a compound that regulates sleep and has been linked to narcolepsy) into the brains of the mice.
The mice stayed awake longer, and the amyloid beta levels rose. Blocking orexin caused the levels to drop, and this suggests that that drugs that target orexin might be helpful as Alzheimer’s treatments.
The team also measured the levels of beta-amyloid in the cerebrospinal fluid of 10 male subjects, all healthy. One measurement was done at night, the other during the day. The levels were lower at night, another suggestion that sleep might keep levels of this plaque protein low in people too. It may be that when we’re awake, our brains are more active, and may produce more of the beta-amyloid protein.
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Does Lack Of Sleep Have A Role In Alzheimer’s? Continued…
This research also points out the need to treat sleep disorders. This benefits to doing so go beyond just helping a patient cope in the short term, since these diseases quite possibly have an impact on brain health years later.
Prescription sleeping aid can be helpful for a short time, but a much better, more lasting coping strategy is to exercise during the day so that you use up energy and are more likely to be tired at night.
One of many frustrating things about Alzheimer’s is that despite years of research, there are few effective weapons against this memory-robbing disease. And while those with the condition are known to suffer some sleep abnormalities, no one can say for sure if these are cause or symptom.
In 2010 estimates have over 35 million people around the world dealing with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
Treatment for Alzheimer’s symptoms is available, and researchers continue to search for better ways to manage the symptoms, delay the onset or prevent this disease altogether, but for now it is best to do everything you can to avoid even minor sleep deprivation symptoms wherever possible, by getting a restful nights sleep every day.
Daily Health Bulletin
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