More than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating condition that causes memory loss, trouble finding the right words, difficulty solving problems and other cognitive issues. Alzheimer’s gets progressively worse over time and is the most common cause of dementia among older adults.
Early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s is an important way to manage the disease and prepare for forthcoming changes in cognition. And researchers from the University of Liège in Belgium found there may be a potential connection between sleep quality and heightened Alzheimer’s risk.
Researchers looked at the sleep patterns in more than 500 people ages 18 to 31 and 50 to 69 and found that older adults who experienced frequent “micro-awakenings” while sleeping had a higher genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease. These micro-awakenings happened before any symptoms (memory loss, trouble with words, etc.) of Alzheimer’s disease occurred. Participants were otherwise healthy.
Adults in the younger group who had frequent “micro-awakenings” throughout the night did not have a similar increased Alzheimer’s risk.
Researchers described micro-awakenings as quick surges of brain activity that don’t necessarily wake someone up but do disrupt sleep. The study was published in the journal Sleep.
Researchers monitored brain activity using an electroencephalogram.
There are limitations to this research. First, researchers looked at more than 500 people in this study, but only 87 people were in the older group. An older sample size of just under 100 people isn’t very large, which means these results may not exist in a larger group of people. More, experiencing frequent small wake-ups does not mean someone will automatically develop Alzheimer’s disease.
That said, sleep is an important factor when it comes to overall health and risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Sleep is a time when the brain consolidates memories and cleans out the waste that may heighten Alzheimer’s risk.
“The relationship between sleep disturbances and dementia is an important dynamic, and rapidly evolving area of investigation,” Dr. Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, assistant professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine, previously told HuffPost.
“There’s a strong association between sleep disruption ― particularly impairment of slow-wave sleep (SWS), also referred to as deep sleep ― and an increased risk of developing dementia. Alterations in sleep architecture, including reductions in SWS, may serve as early biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease,” Fesharaki-Zadeh continued.
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A new study shows that older adults who experience “micro-awakenings” throughout the night have a higher genetic risk of Alzheimer’s.
How To Lower Your Risk Of Alzheimer’s And Dementia
Alzheimer’s disease can be genetic, but there are things you can do to lower your risk or delay the onset.
Getting regular exercise, at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week such as walking, gardening or biking, is one way to reduce your risk. It’s also important to address and treat hearing loss, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Eating a diet high in healthy fats, whole grains, fruits, veggies and lean meats is also good for health overall.
“We always have said, what’s good for the heart is good for the brain,” Dr. Rudy Tanzi, the director of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, previously told HuffPost.
Smoking can increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s and dementia, and so can alcohol use.
And, as suggested by this study, getting good sleep can also be protective for your brain. This includes treating things like sleep apnea.
“People need to sleep adequately because the brain renews itself during deep sleep and lowers its concentration of beta amyloid, which is the toxic protein that contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. James Ellison, a geriatric psychiatrist at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, previously told HuffPost.
Experts also recommend folks stay connected to friends and family and continue to challenge their brains, whether by learning a new language, cooking a new recipe or picking up a new hobby.
Occasionally forgetting the name of a restaurant or misplacing your keys aren’t cause for concern. Cognitive changes are part of aging.
But when these changes disrupt day-to-day life, you find yourself struggling to take part in conversations, get lost on the way to familiar places or have trouble completing tasks that were once easy, it’s worth talking to your doctor about your Alzheimer’s or dementia risk.