Sleep patterns associated with Alzheimer’s disease, neuroscientists estimate when and how it will occur-more lifestyle

Neuroscientists have discovered a method of estimating, based on sleep patterns, some degree of certainty when Alzheimer’s disease is most likely to strike in a person’s life. Their findings suggest that one remedy for this devastating form of dementia, which does not currently exist, is deep, restorative sleep, and that it is sufficient.

The study was led by Matthew Walker and Joseph Winner, neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, published in UC Current Berology.

“We find that the sleep you have now is like a crystal ball that tells you how and when Alzheimer’s disease develops in your brain,” says the University of California, Berkeley psychology. He is a professor of science and neuroscience and has a thesis.

“The silver lining here is that there is something we can do about it,” he added. “The brain flushes itself out during deep sleep, so increasing sleep at an earlier stage in life may put the clock back.”

Walker and colleagues have accumulated 32 toxic plaques in the brain known as beta amyloid, a key player in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease that disrupts memory pathways and other brain functions, and 32 healthy people. Matched the quality of night sleep in the elderly. Over 40 million people worldwide suffer.

Their findings indicate that study participants who began experiencing fragmented sleep and slow wave sleep of non-rapid eye movements (non-REM) are most likely to show increased beta-amyloid during the course of the study. It shows that.

All participants remained healthy throughout the study, but their beta-amyloid growth trajectory was correlated with baseline sleep quality. Researchers were able to predict an increase in beta-amyloid plaques, which is believed to indicate the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Rather than waiting for someone to develop dementia for many years, we can evaluate how sleep quality predicts changes in beta-amyloid plaques over multiple time points. In doing so, this toxic We can measure the rate at which proteins accumulate in the brain over time, which may indicate the onset of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. UC Berkeley, the lead author of a study at the Human Sleep Science Walker Center. Winer who got the issue.

In addition to predicting the time it may take to develop Alzheimer’s disease, this result strengthens the link between sleep deprivation and illness. This is especially important in the face of the tsunami of an aging baby boomer generation on the horizon.

Previous studies have found that sleep clears the brain of beta-amyloid deposits, but these new findings identify non-REM slow-wave sleep as a target for interventions on cognitive decline.

Researchers also note that genetic tests can predict intrinsic susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease, and blood tests provide diagnostic tools, but they also do not offer the potential for lifestyle therapeutic interventions like sleep does. I’m pointing out.

“If deep restorative sleep can delay the disease, we should make it a major priority,” Winer said. “And if doctors know about this relationship, they can ask older patients about sleep quality and suggest sleep as a preventative strategy.”

Thirty-two healthy participants in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who participated in sleep studies were found in the Berkeley Aging Cohort Study, led by William Jugst, a professor of public health at the University of California, Berkeley, who is also the co-author of this latest study. It is a part. The study on healthy aging started in 2005 with a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

For the purpose of the experiment, each participant was given a series of tests that recorded physiological measurements of sleep polygraphs, EEG, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and other sleep qualities while walking at Walker’s lab for eight hours. Had spent sleeping.

During the course of a multi-year study, researchers regularly use positron emission tomography or PET scans to track the growth rate of beta-amyloid protein in the brains of participants and determine their beta-amyloid levels in their sleep profile. Compared with.

The researchers focused on brain activity present during deep-wave slow-wave sleep. They also assessed study participants’ sleep efficiency. It is defined as the amount of time you actually sleep, as opposed to lying in bed asleep.

The results support their hypothesis that sleep quality is a biomarker and a predictor of future illness.

“We know there’s a link between people’s sleep quality and what’s happening in their brains when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease. But what hasn’t been tested before is that your sleep Is whether you can predict what will happen to you in the years to come.” “That is the problem we had.”

And they got their answer: “Effectively measuring sleep helps us travel into the future and estimate where your amyloid deposits are,” Walker said. Told.

As a next step, Walker and Winer are exploring how to take study participants at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease and implement methods to improve sleep quality.

“If we intervene, we hope that after three or four years, our sleep has improved, causing the buildup to go away as we thought it would,” Winer said. ..

“Sure, if improving sleep could lower the arrow on the risk of Alzheimer’s, it would be an important and promising advance,” Walker concluded.

(This article has been published from the telegraph agency feed without any changes to the text. Only the headings have changed.)

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