Dementia is a progressive lack of cognitive abilities, equivalent to memory, that is critical enough to have an effect on an individual’s day by day activities.
It may be brought on by numerous different diseases, including Alzheimer’swhich is essentially the most common form. Dementia is brought on by a lack of neurons over a protracted time frame. Since, by the point symptoms appear, many changes within the brain have already occurred, many scientists are specializing in studying the danger and protective aspects for dementia.
A risk factor, or conversely, a protective factor, is a condition or behaviour that increases or reduces the danger of developing a disease, but doesn’t guarantee either final result. Some risk aspects for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, equivalent to age or genetics, usually are not modifiable, but there are several other aspects we will influence, specifically lifestyle habits and their impact on our overall health.
These risk aspects include depression, lack of physical activity, social isolation, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking, in addition to poor sleep.
We have been focusing our research on the query of sleep for over 10 years, particularly within the context of the Framingham Heart Study. In this massive community-based cohort study, ongoing because the Nineteen Forties, the health of surviving participants has been monitored to the current day. As researchers in sleep medicine and epidemiology, now we have expertise in researching the role of sleep and sleep disorders in cognitive and psychiatric brain aging.
As a part of our research, we monitored and analyzed the sleep of individuals aged 60 and over to see who did — or didn’t — develop dementia.
Sleep as a risk or protective factor against dementia
Sleep appears to play a vital role in numerous brain functions, equivalent to memory. Good quality sleep could subsequently play an important role in stopping dementia.
Sleep is vital for maintaining good connections within the brain. Recently, research has revealed that sleep seems to have a function much like that of a garbage truck for the brain: deep sleep may very well be crucial for eliminating metabolic waste from the brainincluding clearing certain proteins, equivalent to those known to build up within the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
However, the links between deep sleep and dementia still need to be clarified.
What is deep sleep?
During an evening’s sleep, we undergo several sleep stages that succeed each other and are repeated.
NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep) is split into light NREM sleep (NREM1 stage), NREM sleep (NREM2 stage) and deep NREM sleep, also called slow-wave sleep (NREM3 stage). The latter is related to several restorative functions. Next, REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep) is the stage generally related to essentially the most vivid dreams. An adult generally spends around 15 to twenty per cent of every night in deep sleep, if we add up all of the periods of NREM3 sleep.
Several sleep changes are common in adults, equivalent to going to bed and waking up earlier, sleeping for shorter periods of time and fewer deeply, and waking up more steadily through the night.
(Andrée-Ann Baril)
Loss of deep sleep linked to dementia
Participants within the Framingham Heart Study were assessed using a sleep recording — referred to as polysomnography — on two occasions, roughly five years apart, in 1995-1998 and again in 2001-2003.
Many people showed a discount of their deep slow-wave sleep over time, as is to be expected with aging. Conversely, the quantity of deep sleep in some people remained stable and even increased.
Our team of researchers from the Framingham Heart Study followed 346 participants aged 60 and over for an additional 17 years to watch who developed dementia and who didn’t.
Progressive lack of deep sleep over time was related to an increased risk of dementia, regardless of the cause, and particularly Alzheimer’s type dementia. These results were independent of many other risk aspects for dementia.
Although our results don’t prove that lack of deep sleep causes dementia, they do suggest that it may very well be a risk think about the elderly. Other facets of sleep may additionally be necessary, equivalent to its duration and quality.
Strategies to enhance deep sleep
Knowing the impact of an absence of deep sleep on cognitive health, what strategies may be used to enhance it?
First and foremost, should you’re experiencing sleep problems, it’s price talking to your doctor. Many sleep disorders are underdiagnosed and treatable, particularly through behavioural (i.e. non-medicinal) approaches.
Adopting good sleep habits will help, equivalent to going to bed and getting up at consistent times or avoiding brilliant or blue light in bed, like that of screens.
You also can avoid caffeine, limit your alcohol intake, maintain a healthy weight, be physically energetic through the day, and sleep in a cushty, dark and quiet environment.
The role of deep sleep in stopping dementia stays to be explored and studied. Encouraging sleep with good lifestyle habits could have the potential to assist us age in a healthier way.
