Sleep just doesn’t do wonders for your memory. However, it can also help reduce the risk of dementia and even death. Even though it’s well-known that people who’ve got dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease, typically have fragmented, poor sleep patterns, two new clinical studies show that how lacking enough sleep can increase the risk of dementia.
Inadequate sleep in your midlife can cause dementia later on
If you don’t get enough sleep during your midlife, you’re at a higher risk of suffering from dementia in your twilight years. There are many reasons why people don’t get enough sleep during their middle age. Some of them include pressing deadlines, anxiety, insomnia, caretaking responsibilities, and undesirable work shifts. Even though all of these can’t be controlled, some can. For instance, if you’re getting only 4 to 5 hours of sleep because of work, you might want to consider changing your work habits, or else you could end up battling dementia time retirement rolls through.
The link between inadequate sleep in middle age and dementia at a later stage is essential both from a scientific and clinical point of view. Studies conducted on middle-aged people have shown how poor sleep patterns can cause dementia twenty-five or more years in the future.
However, although it’s not quite clear why this happens, one possible reason could be beta-amyloid deposits. Beta-amyloid is the Alzheimer’s protein that both clumps and clusters together, causing Alzheimer’s plaques. No one is sure about what this protein’s function is, although there’s evidence that shows it helps the brain defend itself against unwanted microorganisms.
The good news
Getting enough sleep will help you reduce the risk of developing dementia at the later stages of your life. A study conducted by researchers in Chicago and Toronto found that adequate sleep help keeps tangle pathology development at bay and reduced the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. So, don’t think of sleep as an annoying interruption. On the contrary, it could help make your life way better in the future.
