Sleep disturbances, including lack of sleep, are associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, confirms a new study.
- With less than 7 hours per night, the French sleep an hour and a half less on average than 50 years ago, according to Inserm. 13% of them are chronic insomniacs.
- About 900,000 people are affected by Alzheimer’s disease, the majority of them women. Only 1.2 to 2% of cases are hereditary, according to Inserm.
Sleep disorders are the bed of a number of health problems, such as diabetes or cardiovascular pathologies. A recent study, published in the journal Brain Communicationseven suggests that there could be a link between poor quality sleep and Alzheimer’s disease, which affects nearly a million people in France.
Poor sleep activates biomarkers linked to Alzheimer’s disease
If previous studies had reached the same conclusion, this is the first time that a cohort of this size, with so much epidemiological and experimental data, has been used for an analysis of the effects of sleep. As part of their work, which is part of the European Longitudinal Cohort Study for the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD), the researchers analyzed data from 1,168 adults over the age of 50 and without cognitive impairment. More precisely the biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in the cerebrospinal fluid, cognitive performance and quality of sleep – its duration, its efficiency, its alteration… The participants were followed over a period of 18 months. The objective, to assess the effect of sleep on the probabilities of cognitive decline.
The results did not disappoint: poor quality of sleep (insomnia, snoring, apnea, etc.) in volunteers is significantly associated with an increase in t-tau protein in the cerebrospinal fluid, and a short Sleep, less than seven hours, is associated with higher levels of p-tau and t-tau proteins, key biomarkers for measuring Alzheimer’s risk in the preclinical phase of the disease. Bad sleep would therefore not work in our favor.
Cognitive decline: the importance of prevention to ward off risk
Understand how and when sleep deprivation contributes to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease “is important for the design and implementation of future therapies”, can we read in a communicated from the University of Bristol, who participated in the study. “Future research is needed to test the effectiveness of preventative practices, designed to improve sleep in the presymptomatic stages of the disease”says lead author, researcher Laura Stankeviciute.
Many “preventive practices“ exist precisely to overcome his nocturnal escapades and find the sleep of the just, like banishing screens an hour before sleeping, doing physical exercise or adjusting his diet.