A new study suggests that poor sleep of adults may cause the formation of brain plaques that may lead to Alzheimer's disease.
Adam P. Spira, lead author of the study from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and his colleagues surveyed 70 people with ages between 53 and 91. They were asked on the number of hours of sleep time they get at night, the frequency of fragmented sleep and other forms of sleep disruptions.
Afterwhich, the participants underwent brain scans to check for clusters of beta-amyloid which are clumps of protein substances in the brain. The researchers found that the beta-amyloid in the brains of those who have poor sleep was more pronounced than those who have good sleep. About 25 to 30 percent of the subjects showed high quantities of the plaque than normally found in healthy people.
Some speculate that lack of sleep may lead to deterioration of cognitive abilities. On the average, the level of the protein substances in the brain increase with each additional hour of missed sleep and for each negative point for disrupted or fragmented sleep.
Because the study only scanned the brain at the same time of the survey, the researchers could not decide whether poor sleep is causing Alzheimer's or the neurodegenerative is causing the other.
The results were still the same even when they tried to disregard the data from four people who showed signs of deterioration of cognitive abilities including Alzheimer's.
Spira however is optimistic about the results of their study. He shared to Reuters Health, "It's exciting that our findings … may point to sleep disturbance as something that can be a modifiable risk factor that can be leveraged to prevent Alzheimer's disease."
The association of the number of hours of sleep and good sleeping habits is a sign that will help scientists in further study. However, this does not mean that people should be worried about getting neurodegenerative diseases because poor sleep. This only stresses the importance of getting enough and good quality sleep.
The study was published in the Oct. 21 issue of the online journal JAMA Neurology.