Poor Sleep Linked with Risk of Alzheimer's Disease

Poor sleep might increase risk of Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and colleagues, found that people with low-quality sleep had more plaques in their brain, which are signs of dementia.

Data for the study came from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Researchers looked at medical records of 70 adults who were around 76 years old. The participants were asked about their sleeping habits.

They then hooked each participant to a brain scanner to check for signs of dementia. Doctors usually look for clusters of protein called beta-amyloid.

The scans showed amount of beta-amyloid in brains of people with Alzheimer's disease was higher than that of people without the condition. The study found that the level of protein-clumps co-related with both duration and quality of sleep, Reuters reported.

"We've known for a long time that people with Alzheimer's disease have really disturbed sleep patterns," Adam Spira from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, reports Reuters Health. "People have wondered, well, is it possible that poor sleep is actually leading to cognitive decline?"

A recent study had found that sleep flushes toxins from the brain by allowing space between the brain cells to expand. Another study had reported that poor sleep prevents the brain from storing memory.

The study is published in the journal JAMA Neurology.                                 

Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking, according to National Institute on Aging. Latest data from the Alzheimer's Association shows that over 5 million people in the U.S. have AD, a number that is expected to explode to 13. 8 to 16 million people by 2050.