A daily nap is a beneficial reflex that helps to drive away fatigue, to be more efficient at work And happier every day… But when these small sums become an all too frequent leitmotif, it could become problematic. For researchers from University of California San Francisco (UCSF in the United States), excessive daytime naps could be a predictive sign of Alzheimer’s disease. This symptom occurs long before the onset of memory problems associated with this dementia, which could allow early detection of the pathology, assure the experts.
Studies have argued in the past that frequent daytime naps, for example, compensate for the lack of sleep nocturnal activity linked to Alzheimer’s disease in regions of the brain that promote sleep. American researchers are providing a new biological explanation for this phenomenon of daytime naps. According to them, Alzheimer’s disease directly attacks the regions of the brain that keep us awake during the day.
These areas of the brain are the first victims of the neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease, they believe. Excessive daytime naps – especially when they occur in the absence of severe nighttime sleep disturbances – could then serve as an early warning sign of the disease.
“Our work shows conclusive evidence that areas of the brain that promote wakefulness degenerate due to the accumulation of tau protein – not amyloid protein – from the earliest stages of the disease,” observes the lead author of the report. study, Lea T. Grinberg, associate professor of neurology and pathology at UCSF’s Center for Memory and Aging.
The brain network associated with wakefulness more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s
The researchers measured tau protein levels and the number of neurons in three brain regions involved in wakefulness. They analyzed the brains of 13 deceased Alzheimer’s patients and that of seven healthy patients. The brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease showed a significant accumulation of tau protein in the three cerebral centers promoting wakefulness and these same regions lost up to 75% of their neurons. “The brain network involved in wakefulness seems particularly vulnerable in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Jun Oh, co-author of the study. “Understanding the reasons for this phenomenon is something we need to work on in our future research,” he concludes.
The study was published August 12 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
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