Older adults with an unwanted and sometimes uncontrollable need to sleep during the day, due to sleep problems, are more likely to develop a syndrome that can lead to dementia.
- Predementia syndrome is characterized by slow walking speed and cognitive complaints.
- Poor overall sleep quality is linked to incident, but not prevalent, motor cognitive risk syndrome.
- Seniors suffering from excessive daytime sleepiness and a lack of enthusiasm for completing tasks are three times more likely to develop it than those without these sleep-related problems.
There is growing evidence that sleep disturbances are associated with the risk of cognitive impairment. However, “their association with the incidence of motor cognitive risk syndrome is not known”reported researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York (United States). As a reminder, people suffering from predementia syndrome, that is to say which occurs before the onset of dementia, walk slowly and say they have memory problems, although they do not suffer from a motor disability or chronic global deterioration of cognition.
445 elderly people answered questions about their sleep and memory
In a study, American scientists wanted to examine the link between sleep disorders, incident motor cognitive risk syndrome and prevalent cognitive risk syndrome in older people. For this, 445 adults, aged on average 76 years and not suffering from dementia, were recruited. Participants answered questionnaires about sleep (waking up in the middle of the night, inability to fall asleep within 30 minutes, feeling hot or cold, taking sleeping pills) at the start of the intervention. The latter were divided into two groups: “good” sleepers and “bad” sleepers. Additionally, excessive daytime sleepiness was assessed using this question: “how many times have you had trouble staying awake while driving, eating, or participating in a social activity.” The enthusiasm question asks how difficult it was for people to maintain enough enthusiasm to do things. The volunteers were also asked about their memory problems and their walking speed was tested on a treadmill at the start of the work, then once a year for three years on average.
Predementia syndrome: 3 times more risk in case of excessive daytime sleepiness and lack of enthusiasm
In total, 177 people met the definition of “poor” sleepers and 268 met the definition of “good” sleepers. According to the results, published in the journal Neurology36 adults without predementia syndrome developed it during follow-up of approximately three years. Among participants with excessive daytime sleepiness and lack of enthusiasm, 35.5% developed the syndrome, compared to 6.7% of adults without these problems. After accounting for other factors that might influence the syndrome’s risk, such as age, depression, and other health conditions, the authors found that volunteers with excessive daytime sleepiness and lack of enthusiasm were three times more likely to develop motor cognitive risk syndrome than those who did not have these sleep-related problems.
“The research does not prove that these sleep disorders cause the syndrome, it only shows an association. (…) Thus, more work needs to be done to examine the link between sleep problems and cognitive decline , as well as the role played by motor cognitive risk syndrome. We also need studies to explain the mechanisms that link these sleep disorders to motor cognitive risk syndrome and cognitive decline. concluded Victory Leroylead author of the study.
