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

Australia’s first retirement village fitness park 

 A new outdoor exercise park has been opened at a Melbourne retirement village, giving residents a healthy – and fun – opportunity to get active and socialise. The equipment has been specially designed for older users, and has been installed in the grounds of Old Colonists’ Association of Victoria’s Leith Park retirement village. “They’re absolutely... Read More

It is okay not to be okay: CEO shares her personal experience during COVID

On Tuesday 6 October, I cried at work. I was on a zoom call with a bunch of other CEOs from the sight loss sector in the UK. I cried because things felt hopeless and I didn’t have my shit together and someone asked if I was okay. Do you know what happened? It resulted... Read More

Perth grandmother dies after waiting two and half hours for an ambulance

An 80-year-old grandmother has died while waiting for an ambulance that took two and half hours to arrive. It was also revealed that St John WA was urged to utilise firefighters to help cover the shortage of ambulance drivers but they have not yet used them. Read More
Advertisement