{"id":554291,"date":"2026-03-23T01:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T01:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554291\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T01:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T01:01:09","slug":"how-poor-sleep-can-increase-dementia-risk-and-what-to-know-about-the-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554291\/","title":{"rendered":"How poor sleep can increase dementia risk and what to know about the links"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the 85th instalment in a series<\/a> on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope.<\/p>\n

As an erratic sleeper, I worry when I see a headline such as this recent one from Science News: \u201cPoor sleep may account for a large share of dementia cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

That headline topped an article about a recent study of older adults in the US. It found that about 13 per cent of dementia cases may have roots in insomnia, and that poor sleep may be as significant a dementia risk factor as hearing loss<\/a> and hypertension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But then other studies suggest differently. For example, one large analysis from the Sleep and Dementia Consortium, in which 4,600 older adults in the US were followed for up to 19 years each, found that the amount of time spent in different sleep stages \u2013 light, heavy, REM and NREM \u2013 did not neatly predict who went on to develop dementia.<\/p>\n

Sleep is certainly important \u2013 consider how awful you feel after a bad night\u2019s sleep<\/a>. It affects our work, relationships, immunity \u2013 even our appetites. One sleep researcher says she can tell which of her colleagues had a bad night by how their canteen plates get loaded with \u201cbeige\u201d foods \u2013 soft, crunchy or salty carbohydrates and processed items like biscuits and crisps.<\/p>\n

We need good sleep. That is when the brain goes about housekeeping, clearing it of the toxic proteins that are hallmarks of Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the 85th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7277,49,48,214949,10237,214947,84,30013,214950,10777,88963,214957,5886,997,214948,122379,214955,214951,214956,214953,214952,214954,53197,20627,214958],"class_list":["post-554291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-christine-walsh","tag-dementia","tag-erratic-sleep","tag-health","tag-insomnia","tag-memory-and-aging-center","tag-parkinsons-disease","tag-rem-sleep","tag-rem-sleep-behaviour-disorder","tag-san-francisco","tag-science-news","tag-sleep-and-dementia-consortium","tag-sleep-apnoea","tag-sleep-more-from-panic-and-perfectionism-to-stress-free-sleep","tag-sleep-physiologist","tag-sleep-trackers","tag-sleepyhead-clinic","tag-stephanie-romiszewski","tag-think-less","tag-uk-biobank","tag-university-of-california","tag-university-of-california-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}