Sleeping less than 6 hours a night in middle age increases the risk of dementia by 30%, according to the study

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After following nearly 8,000 people for 25 years, the study found a higher risk of dementia with a “sleep duration of six hours or less at age 50 and 60” compared with those who slept seven hours a night. .

In addition, short, persistent sleep duration between the ages of 50, 60, and 70 was also associated with a “30% increased risk of dementia,” regardless of “sociodemographic, behavioral, cardiometabolic, and mental health factors.” including depression, according to the study. .

“Sleep is important for normal brain function and is also believed to be important in removing toxic proteins that build up in brain dementias,” said Tara Spiers-Jones, who is deputy director of the Center for Brain Discovery. Sciences of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, in a statement. Spiers-Jones did not participate in the study.

“What’s the message for all of us? Evidence of sleep disorders can occur long before other clinical trials of dementia appear,” said Tom Dening, who heads the Center for Dementia. the Institute of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham in the UK, in a statement.

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“However, this study cannot establish cause and effect,” said Denning, who did not participate in the study. “It may simply be a very early sign of the dementia to come, but it’s also very likely that poor sleep isn’t good for the brain and leaves it vulnerable to neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.”

Chicken or egg?

It is well known that people with Alzheimer’s suffer from sleep problems. In fact, insomnia, night wandering, and daytime sleepiness are common in people with Alzheimer’s, as well as other cognitive disorders such as Lewy body dementia and frontal lobe dementia.
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But, poor sleep leads to dementia and which is the first? This issue of “egg and chicken” has been explored in previous studies, with research pointing in both directions, according to neuroscientist Jeffrey Iliff, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of Medicine’s School of Medicine. Washington.

“In experimental studies, there seems to be evidence of both chicken and egg,” Iliff told CNN in a previous interview. “You can drive it in any direction.”

However, some recent studies have explored the harms that sleep deprivation can cause.

A 2017 study found that people who have less sleep in REM or sleep in sleep may be at higher risk of developing dementia. REM is the fifth stage of sleep, when the eyes move, the body heats up, breathing and pulse accelerate, and the mind dreams.
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Healthy middle-aged adults who slept poorly just one night produced a large amount of amyloid beta plaques, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, revealed another study published in 2017. Beta amyloid is a compound sticky protein that alters communication between brain cells and eventually kills cells as it builds up in the brain.

One week of impaired sleep increased the amount of tau, another protein responsible for Alzheimer’s-associated disorders, frontal lobe dementia and Lewy body disease, according to the study.

Another 2017 study compared markers of dementia in the spinal fluid with self-reported sleep problems and found that subjects who had sleep problems were more likely to show evidence of tau pathology, brain cell damage, and inflammation. , even when there are other factors such as depression, body mass, cardiovascular disease and sleep medications were taken into account.
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“Our findings match the idea that worse sleep can contribute to the buildup of Alzheimer’s-related proteins in the brain,” Barbara Bendlin of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center told CNN. CNN in a previous interview about the 2017 study.

“The fact that we can find these effects in people who are cognitively healthy and close to middle age suggests that these relationships appear early, perhaps providing a window of opportunity for intervention,” Bendlin said.

“New information” about the link to sleep deprivation

As the new study followed a large population for an extended period of time, it adds “new information to the emerging image” about the link between sleep deprivation and dementia, said Elizabeth Coulthard, associate professor of dementia neurology at the University of Bristol in the UK, in a statement.

“This means that at least some of the people who developed dementia probably didn’t have it at the start of the study when their sleep was first assessed,” said Coulthard, who did not participate in the study.

“It strengthens the evidence that poor sleep in middle age can cause or worsen dementia in later life,” he said.

Right now, science has no “safe way to prevent dementia,” but people can change certain behaviors to reduce their risk, said Sara Imarisio, who leads strategic initiatives at Alzheimer’s Research UK, in a statement . Imarisio did not participate in the study.

“The best evidence suggests that not smoking, drinking only in moderation, staying active mentally and physically, eating a balanced diet and controlling cholesterol and blood pressure levels can help keep the brain healthy as we age.”

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