Can poor sleep trigger Alzheimer's disease?

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the fifth leading cause of death among people aged 65 and older and a leading cause of disability and poor health.

However, this disease is still "incurable", but we can try our best to prevent it.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the fifth leading cause of death among people aged 65 and older and a leading cause of disability and poor health.

However, this disease is still "incurable", but we can try our best to prevent it.

The typical characteristics of AD are senile plaques formed by excessive accumulation of β-amyloid protein (Aβ) in the brain and neurofibrillary tangles formed by excessive phosphorylation of Tau protein, which eventually lead to necrosis and apoptosis of nerve cells, causing brain atrophy, impairing cognitive function, and even taking life.

Although aging is one of the biggest independent risk factors for AD, more and more young people are now diagnosed with early-onset AD. Sleep quality may be closely related to AD. Studies in recent years have found that 60% of AD patients have at least one serious sleep disorder, such as insomnia or sleep apnea. Is AD actually a sleep disorder?

Sleep plays a vital role in processing and storing memories. While we're awake, our brain stores newly formed memories, and while we're asleep, our brain goes back through a flood of data, transferring important memories to long-term memory storage. But when sleep deprived, the brain acts like a sieve, and important information and memories can slip through the cracks and be lost forever. This is true for people of any age, but especially for older adults. So what appears to be age-related dementia may actually be sleep deprivation dementia.

Studies have found that when a person enters deep sleep, the blood flow in the brain decreases, the blood flow rate slows down, and the cerebrospinal fluid increases. The flow of cerebrospinal fluid helps to remove metabolic waste from the brain, including beta-amyloid protein. The less blood flow, the more space the cerebrospinal fluid has to take away metabolic waste. In the first few seconds that the cerebrospinal fluid enters the brain, there will be a burst of slow EEG waves that only occur during deep sleep, and the reduction of slow waves during deep sleep is significantly correlated with the increase of beta-amyloid protein. AD patients have fewer of these electrophysiological slow waves, which limits the brain's ability to clear related toxins.

A new study shows that sleep regulation may also involve an important regulatory mechanism that is believed to protect brain cells from neurodegenerative diseases such as AD and Parkinson's disease. Researchers have discovered a proteolytic pathway (PERK) and wakefulness hormones. Studies have shown that enhancing or reducing PERK has the effect of inhibiting or releasing the production of wakefulness hormones. In other words, when proteolysis is enhanced, the secretion of wakefulness hormones decreases, and people will enter deep sleep; when proteolysis is inhibited, the secretion of wakefulness hormones increases, people are easy to wake up, and sleep quality decreases. Sleep quality decreases, toxic proteins accumulate more, and damages brain nerves.

The researchers believe that further research on the relationship between sleep and proteolysis may lead to the discovery of new therapeutic strategies to improve sleep quality, reduce the risk of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases, and effectively delay brain aging. If lack of sleep plays a causal role in the development of AD, then treating lack of sleep may be a new way to prevent and treat AD. However, for modern people, busy life and work make people sleep less and the quality of sleep decrease, which can prolong reaction time, cause headaches, impair memory and endocrine disorders, and affect the brain's processing of information, consolidation of memory and cleaning of toxins.

Getting 7-8 hours of good sleep every night is essential for brain health and function. People know the importance of sleep, but it is difficult to implement, so here are some tips for you:

➢ Create a warm sleeping atmosphere before going to bed, that is, turn off the light or use a blackout eye mask;

➢ Put down your mobile phone before going to bed. The blue light from the mobile phone will interfere with the secretion of melatonin and affect your sleep;

➢ Reduce caffeine intake in the afternoon, including coffee, tea, energy drinks, etc.;

➢ Try to have a regular bedtime and wake-up time;

➢ Create comfortable sleeping conditions, use comfortable mattresses, pillows, etc.;

➢ Do moderate physical exercise every day, such as walking;

For those who often have sleep problems such as excessive daytime sleepiness, insomnia, difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, frequent nighttime waking up and waking up too early in the morning, it is recommended to seek medical attention in time and adjust sleep. Here, I hope everyone can develop regular sleep habits, good sleep quality, sufficient sleep time, be energetic every day, study efficiently, work smoothly, and stay away from dementia.