Improving deep sleep may prevent dementia

Shutterstock_1978804178
The researchers found, on average, that the amount of deep sleep declined between the two studies, indicating slow wave sleep loss with ageing. [Source: Shutterstock]

As little as a 1% reduction in deep sleep per year for people over 60 years of age translates into a 27% increased risk of dementia, according to a Monash study which suggests that enhancing or maintaining deep sleep, also known as slow wave sleep, in older years could stave off dementia.

The study, led by Associate Professor Matthew Pase, from the Monash School of Psychological Sciences and the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia, and published today in JAMA Neurology, looked at 346 participants, over 60 years of age, enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study who completed two overnight sleep studies in the time periods 1995 to 1998 and 2001 to 2003, with an average of five years between the two studies.

These participants were then carefully followed for dementia from the time of the second sleep study through to 2018. The researchers found, on average, that the amount of deep sleep declined between the two studies, indicating slow wave sleep loss with ageing.

 

Even adjusting for age, sex, cohort, genetic factors, smoking status, sleeping medication use, antidepressant use, and anxiolytic use, each percentage decrease in deep sleep each year was associated with a 27 per cent increase in the risk of dementia.

“Slow-wave sleep, or deep sleep, supports the ageing brain in many ways, and we know that sleep augments the clearance of metabolic waste from the brain, including facilitating the clearance of proteins that aggregate in Alzheimer’s disease,” Associate Professor Pase said.

“However, to date we have been unsure of the role of slow-wave sleep in the development of dementia. Our findings suggest that slow wave sleep loss may be a modifiable dementia risk factor.”

Associate Professor Pase said that the Framingham Heart Study is a unique community-based cohort with repeated overnight polysomnographic (PSG) sleep studies and uninterrupted surveillance for incident dementia.

“We also examined whether genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease or brain volumes suggestive of early neurodegeneration were associated with a reduction in slow-wave sleep. We found that a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, but not brain volume, was associated with accelerated declines in slow wave sleep.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

“Fix the aged care crisis” says Labor MP Julie Collins

For a long time now I’ve been calling on the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government to fix the aged care crisis. Since 2013 the Government has had the reigns of Labor’s Living Longer Living Better reforms. In five years this Government has turned exciting reform into a crisis that’s evolved under its watch. With the aged care system... Read More

Elderly Bupa Resident Found To Have Maggots In Head Wound

An aged care facility on the NSW south coast has come under fire this week after it was revealed that a resident was admitted to hospital with maggots in his head wound. Bupa Aged Care Eden made headlines only weeks ago after it became the 9th Bupa aged care home to be sanctioned for failing... Read More

Nurses who work night shift at higher risk of developing cancer

It’s long been known that working the night shift is associated with a high risk of disease, including heart disease, depression, insomnia, obesity, and, now research tells us, cancer. Women who work night shift have an increased risk of contracting several types of cancer, including breast, skin, and gastrointestinal cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology,... Read More
Advertisement