Dementia is the progressive lack of cognitive abilities, similar to memory, that is significant enough to affect a person’s each day activities.
It may be brought on by many alternative diseases, including: Alzheimer’s, which is essentially the most common form. Dementia is brought on by the lack of neurons over a long time period. Because many changes have already taken place within the brain before symptoms appear, many scientists are specializing in studying the chance and protective aspects for dementia.
A risk factor, or conversely, a protective factor, is a condition or behavior that increases or decreases the chance of developing a disease, but doesn’t guarantee any end result. Some risk aspects for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, similar to age and genetics, can’t be modified, but there are several other aspects we will influence: particularly lifestyle habits and their impact on our overall health.
Risk aspects include depression, physical inactivity, social isolation, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking, and poor sleep.
For over 10 years, we now have been focusing our research on the difficulty of sleep, especially within the context of: Framingham Heart Study. In this huge community-based cohort study, which has been ongoing because the Forties, the health of surviving participants has been monitored to today. As researchers in sleep medicine and epidemiology, we now have expertise in examining 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 developed dementia and who didn’t.
Sleep as a risk or protective factor against dementia
Sleep appears to play an important role in lots of brain functions, similar to memory. Good sleep quality it might due to this fact play a key role in stopping dementia.
Sleep is necessary for maintenance good connections within the brain. Recently, research has shown that sleep appears to perform a function just like that of a garbage truck for the brain: deep sleep may be crucial in removing metabolic waste from the brainincluding removing certain proteins, similar to those known to build up within the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
However, the links between deep sleep and dementia still should be clarified.
What is deep sleep?
We undergo several during our nightly sleep sleep stages which follow one another and repeat themselves.
NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep) is divided 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 regenerative functions. Next, REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep) is typically related to essentially the most vivid dreams. An adult typically spends about 15-20 percent of every night in deep sleep if we add up all periods of NREM3 sleep.
Several sleep changes are common in adults, similar to going to bed and waking up earlier, sleeping less and fewer deeply, and waking up more often through the night.
(Andrée-Ann Baril)
Loss of deep sleep linked to dementia
Participants in Framingham Heart Study was assessed using sleep recordings – called polysomnography – twice, roughly five years apart, from 1995 to 1998 and again from 2001 to 2003.
Many people have shown a reduction in deep slow-wave sleep through the years, which is expected as we age. Conversely, the quantity of deep sleep remained stable and even increased in some people.
Our team of Framingham Heart Study researchers followed 346 participants aged 60 and older for the subsequent 17 years to see who developed dementia and who didn’t.
The progressive lack of deep sleep over time has been related to an increased risk of dementia of any cause, especially Alzheimer’s 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 might be a risk factor in older adults. Other points of sleep, similar to duration and quality, may be necessary.
Strategies to enhance deep sleep
Knowing the impact of lack of deep sleep on cognitive health, what strategies may be used to enhance it?
First of all, for those who are fighting sleep problems, it is value talking to your doctor. Many sleep disorders are underdiagnosed and may be treated, especially through behavioral (i.e. non-medical) methods.
It could also be helpful to adopt good sleep habits, similar to going and getting up at regular times or avoiding brilliant or blue lights in bed, similar to screens.
You also can avoid caffeine, limit your alcohol intake, maintain a healthy weight, be physically energetic through the day, and sleep in a comfortable, dark and quiet environment.
The role of deep sleep in stopping dementia stays to be explored and explored. Encouraging sleep through good lifestyle habits can potentially help us age healthier.
