Deep sleep may be the key to preventing the slow decline in brain health that may one day lead to Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.
Based on a study of 62 older, cognitively healthy adults, researchers from the University of California (UC) Berkeley, Stanford University, and the University of California, Irvine in the US found that brain damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease They found that those with the change performed better on tests of memory function as their memory improved. deep sleep.
This is independent of education and physical activity, two factors that, along with social connectedness, are known to contribute to cognitive resilience in older adults.
People with similar Alzheimer’s disease-related changes who didn’t get enough deep sleep didn’t perform as well on the same tests. By comparison, there was little difference in sleep for those with low accumulation.
Taken together, the results, published in May this year, suggest that getting enough solid sleep may help support the memory decline that begins as dementia begins to take hold. are doing.
“Think of deep sleep as a life raft that keeps your memories afloat, rather than being dragged down by the weight of Alzheimer’s disease.” Said University of California (UC) Berkeley neuroscientist Matthew Walker, senior author of the study.
“This is particularly exciting because we can do something about it. There are ways to improve sleep, even in older adults,” Walker says. add.
New research resonates Previous research The study found that amyloid beta protein accumulates in the brains of people whose sleep is disrupted.However, both sleep deprivation risk factors for It is also a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, so it is difficult to distinguish cause from effect. Similarly, clumps of amyloid beta protein may only be a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease and not the underlying cause.
Still, levels of amyloid beta protein are commonly used as a marker for Alzheimer’s disease, and amyloid beta protein and another protein called tau can start clogging up brain cells decades before symptoms of the disease appear. Research suggests that there is.
Previous research from Walker’s group found that when large amounts of amyloid beta aggregate in the brains of older adults, it can disrupt deep sleep, also known as non-rapid eye movement slow-wave sleep. impair memory function.
However, some people seem to stave off the deterioration associated with Alzheimer’s disease even when they have relatively high levels of amyloid beta protein. To find out why, Walker and his colleagues monitored the participants’ brain waves while they slept and asked them to take a memory test the next day.
Among people whose brain scans revealed similarly high levels of beta-amyloid deposits, getting enough sleep seemed to make a crucial difference in cognitive function. This effect was only observed when the researchers looked specifically at non-rapid eye movement slow-wave sleep, and not at other sleep wave frequencies or sleep stages.
Long-term studies in older adults are needed to test whether increasing deep sleep over years actually helps maintain cognitive function over that time, even as amyloid-beta levels increase. is necessary.
For now, this study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that sleep may be responsible for good health. Modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s diseaseThe idea is that by giving the brain time to cleanse the waste products that accumulate during the day, it may prevent molecular changes from occurring. They also point out that sleep quality is important.
“If you have a certain level of brain pathology, you don’t develop cognitive symptoms or memory problems.” Zofia Zabec, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author Said The research results were announced back in May.
Although people can exhibit molecular changes that indicate progression to Alzheimer’s disease, Zabetz says their findings suggest that lifestyle factors can help buffer those effects. “One of those factors is sleep, especially deep sleep,” she says. Said.
Although this study is small, it suggests why getting better sleep naturally may be a better option than taking sleeping pills to wake you up.
According to a recent study, users of sleeping pills appear to have lower levels of amyloid protein in their cerebrospinal fluid, which cleanses the brain during the night. However, these drugs come with side effects. It can also induce people into a light sleep state rather than a deep sleep stage.
Instead, Zabetz suggests cutting out coffee late in the day, exercising, avoiding screen time, and taking a hot shower before bed to set yourself up for a good night’s sleep.
While you snooze, rest assured that scientists are hard at work solving the perplexing problem of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects millions of people around the world.
This research BMC Medicine.
A version of this article was first published in May 2023.
