We’ve talked about how sleep can be connected to Alzheimer’s, but more studies need to be done to explore this topic thoroughly. A study published in JAMA Neurology has shown that excessive daytime sleepiness can be linked to Alzheimer’s.
Daytime Sleepiness Can Be Linked to Alzheimer’s
The sleepiness in cognitively healthy people can be a sign that amyloid, plaque, is building up in the brain. This is because sleep is needed to get rid of toxins and plaque, and an overall reset of your body.
The researchers reached out to people who were 70 and older. They had a baseline scan and scan of their brains on file. They also completed a sleep quality questionnaire and had to be deemed dementia-free by a team of specialists. The process reduced participants from 2,172 to 283 people.
The researchers then measured the amount of amyloid buildup in their brains over time and compared those results with the amount of daytime sleepiness each person reported. Participants who were sleepy during the day were found to have more of the amyloids that cause Alzheimer’s. They were especially abundant in areas of the brain that deal with emotion, memory retrieval, and behavior.
America is Sleep Deprived