LivingThe better you sleep, the more protected you are...

The better you sleep, the more protected you are against Alzheimer's

Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a possible relationship between the quality of sleep today and the possibility of suffering from Alzheimer’s in the future. The more deep and restorative sleep you get, the more defense your body has against disease.

The explanation lies in beta amyloid , a protein that has long been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s. If beta amyloid builds up in the brain, it can form plaques that interfere with the brain’s ability to function.

What the scientists saw in their experiment is that participants who started out having more fragmented sleep and less slow wave sleep without rapid eye movements (non-REM) were more likely to show an increase in amyloid beta over the course of the study. Therefore, they established a correlation between the quality of initial sleep and the growth of this toxic protein.

Joseph Winer, lead author of the study, highlighted the importance of the finding in predicting when someone may suffer from Alzheimer’s . “Instead of waiting for someone to develop dementia many years later, we can assess how sleep quality predicts changes in beta amyloid plaques at multiple time points. By doing so, we can measure how quickly this toxic protein accumulates in the brain with time, which may indicate the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, “he said.

Currently, there are genetic tests that can predict a person’s inherent susceptibility to the disease. Blood tests are also used to make a diagnosis. The newly discovered findings offer, for their part, the possibility of acting therapeutically on lifestyle, more specifically on sleep. “If deep, restful sleep can delay this disease, we should make it a top priority ,” Winer said. “And if doctors know about this connection, they can ask their older patients about the quality of their sleep and suggest sleep as a prevention strategy.”

Previous studies have seen that during sleep the brain “flushes” itself and cleanses itself of beta amyloid . “We know that there is a connection between the quality of people’s sleep and what happens in their brain, in terms of Alzheimer’s disease. But what hasn’t been proven before is whether their sleep now predicts what they will do. happen years later, “Winer said. “And that’s the question we had.”

And they got the answer: “Measuring sleep effectively helps us travel to the future and estimate where your amyloid accumulation will be,” said Matthew Walker, lead author of the article published in the journal Current Biology.

The study

32 healthy older adults were recruited for the experiment. Each had to spend an eight-hour night’s sleep in Walker’s lab while undergoing a polysomnogram, which measures brain waves, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and other physiological signals of sleep quality. .

The study lasted several years, and the scientists periodically checked the growth rate of beta amyloid in the brains of the participants. They compared the levels of it with their sleep profiles.

The researchers focused on brain activity during deep slow-wave sleep and assessed the efficiency of sleep . This is defined as the actual time spent sleeping, as opposed to the time spent in bed without sleeping. The results supported their hypothesis that sleep quality is a biomarker and predictor of future disease.

Alzheimer’s affects more than 40 million people around the world and today there is no cure.

 

Referencias: Sleep Disturbance Forecasts β-Amyloid Accumulation across Subsequent Years. Joseph R. Winer, Bryce A. Mander, Samika Kumar, Suzanne L. Baker, William J. Jagust

Matthew P. Walker, 3/09/2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.017

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