Chicago, IL – A study in mice suggests lack of sleep may play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, U.S. researchers said.
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The findings, reported in the journal Science, are some of the first to link sleep with the development of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.
Researchers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis studied levels of amyloid beta — a protein that accumulates in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s — in mice genetically engineered to have a version of Alzheimer’s disease.
Amyloid levels rose in the brain when the mice were awake, and fell when they slept.
When the researchers prevented the mice from sleeping, it made matters worse, said Dr. David Holtzman of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, who worked on the study.
“Sleep deprivation markedly accelerated amyloid-beta plaque formation,” he said in an e-mail.
When the team injected orexin — a compound that regulates sleep — into the brains of the mice, the mice stayed awake longer, and amyloid beta levels rose. And when they blocked orexin, these levels decreased.
In people, orexin plays a role in the sleep disorder narcolepsy, which causes excessive sleepiness.
Holtzman said the findings suggest drugs that target orexin may be useful to try as Alzheimer’s treatments.
They also reinforce the need to treat sleep disorders, not only because they cause immediate problems, but because they may have a long-term impact on brain health, he said.
Despite decades of research, doctors still have few effective weapons against Alzheimer’s, a mind-robbing form of dementia for which there are few effective treatments and no cure. Many treatments that have shown promise in mice have had little effect on humans with Alzheimer’s disease.
More than 35 million people globally will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia in 2010, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
this article is putting me to sleep!
I should get to sleep and stop posting comments.
So we are like a mices’ body!! Weird.
I read an article that also said lack of sleep is related to higher anxiet and stress levels, which are also linked to higher blood pressure.
I know a chassidishe woman with lots of kids, k.a.h., told me she was only getting 2 hours a sleep at night. Did not suffer from anxiety and stress. Special neshamah and had a lot of yiras shamayim. Personally, I don’t know how she had the strength to take care of such a large family. Hashem gave her special strength. So much for science.
Chaya Lipschutz.
So? How many hours of sleep does a regular adult need?
Al Gore has done billions of dollars of research and he says alzheimers is caused by global warming. PETA says it is caused by eating kosher meat. Environmental Wackos say it is caused by soft toilet paper.
ouch! I couldnt sleep. I decide to check the news and this is what I found in the middle of the night.
Part two nites i slept 5hrs only is that ok? or is it enough to ch”v do harm? how much missing sleep does one need to ch”v be affected?
The amount of sleep needed varies by individual, so there is not much use thinking “I only got hours of sleep. Also, the study was about sleep deprivation–not regular sleep. So if you miss a great deal of sleep that you usually need, this may have an effect. (I would be careful about overinterpreting these results, of course).
So get the amount of sleep that you feel you need. If you miss a few hours every so often, no big deal. And, in many cases, you can make the sleep up later.
So take it easy, and don’t lose sleep over losing sleep.
When I was a girl I slept usually around 6 to 6 1/2 hours. Now that I’m married I sleep around 10 hours a night. Hope this will help me.
Not that long ago there was a study that linked sleep deprivation and diabetes. As more and more studies are done we’ll find that the lack of sleep causes even more health risks.
The Yeshivas need to also teach our Yungerleit to take care of their bodies with proper sleep, exercise, eating, and hygiene.