One night of bad sleep can lead to Alzheimer s Disease: Scientists
News & Trends •
using positron emission tomography imaging the researchers measured beta-amyloid burden in the brain after one night of rested sleep and after one night of sleep deprivation1 new research suggests that a single night of sleep deprivation can increase levels of beta-amyloid protein involved in the making of alzheimers disease1 beta-amyloid also known as amyloid beta is a sticky protein that can accumulate between brain cells and form plaques. these plaques disrupt brain cell communication and this is believed to play a key role in alzheimers disease1 study co-author nora d. volkow of the laboratory of neuroimaging at the niaaa and colleagues recently published their findings in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences1 alzheimers disease is a progressive cognitive disorder characterised by memory loss and changes in behaviour. it is the most common form of dementia affecting around 5.7 million adults in the united states alone1 past research has associated disrupted sleep with an increase in beta-amyloid levels but volkow and colleagues note that there have been some shortfalls in research1 despite the evidence say the researchers that acute sleep deprivation elevates [beta]-amyloid levels in mouse interstitial fluid and in human cerebrospinal fluid not much is known about the impact of sleep deprivation on [beta]-amyloid burden in the human brain1 to help shed light on how acute sleep deprivation influences brain levels of beta-amyloid the team studied 20 healthy adults aged 22721 the discovery was made by scientists from the american national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism niaaa1 after a single night of sleep deprivation the researchers noticed an increase in beta-amyloid levels in the right hippocampus of the subjects brains as well as in the thalamus1 the hippocampus is the brain region associated with long-term memory and the thalamus is a brain region involved in processing sensory information1 according to the authors these findings provide preliminary evidence for the role of sd [sleep deprivation] on [beta-amyloid] accumulation in the human brain1 volkow and her colleagues note that they are unable to say whether a night of rested sleep could negate the accumulation of beta-amyloid caused by a bad nights sleep but this is something that they plan to investigate in future research1 still they believe that their new study suggests that getting a good nights sleep may be crucial to our brain health1 the authors concludeour results highlight the relevance of good sleep hygiene for proper brain function and as a potential target for prevention of ad [alzheimers disease]1 reported by medical news today1