Alzheimer's linked to lack of Zzzzs

[Fumesucker]

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/47580/title/Alzheimers_linked_to_lack_of_Zzzzs


Sleep deprivation leads to more plaques in genetically susceptible mice
By Tina Hesman Saey
Web edition : Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Losing sleep could lead to losing brain cells, a new study suggests.

Levels of a protein that forms the hallmark plaques of Alzheimer’s disease increase in the brains of mice and in the spinal fluid of people during wakefulness and fall during sleep, researchers report online September 24 in Science. Mice that didn’t get enough sleep for three weeks also had more plaques in their brains than well-rested mice, the team found.

Scientists already knew that having Alzheimer’s disease was associated with poor sleep, but they had thought that Alzheimer’s disease caused the sleep disruption.

“This is the first experimental study that clearly shows that disrupted sleep may contribute to the disease process,” says Peter Meerlo, a neuroscientist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “What makes it exciting for me is that it shows that chronic sleep loss, in the long run, changes the brain in ways that may contribute to disease.” A vicious cycle could result if sleep loss leads to Alzheimer’s disease and the disease leads to more sleep loss, he says.

<snip>

More at link.

[SpiralHawk]

1. After reading this, OMG, I'll never get to sleep

worry, worry, worry - what if I don't get enuf sleep? -- worry, worry, worry.

[ixion]

2. so the claim that sleep deprivation isn't torture

is wrong.

[SoCalDem]

3. Well crap! I'm done for

I've had insomnia for most of my life, and when I do sleep, it's usually in 45 minute intervals, or at odd times of the day..
Basically, when I'm sleepy, I sleep, and when I'm not, I don;t even bother

[Fumesucker]

4. Eh, I tend to insomnia also..

I find that vigorous aerobic exercise helps me sleep, not right after the exercise but at "normal" hours.

[Kokonoe]

8. Don't worry, at least you're not getting dementia

Too Much Sleep Could Increase Risk of Dementia

September 17, 2009

http://www.sleepfoundation.org/alert/too-much-sleep-could-increase-risk-dementia

You always hear about health problems associated with people not getting enough sleep, but what about getting too much sleep? According to a study in the European Journal of Neurology, sleeping nine hours or more every day might increase your risk for dementia. The study, conducted by researchers in Spain, followed 3,286 adults age 65 and over for three years. Participants were screened for dementia and reported their daily sleep duration, which included night-time sleep and daytime napping. Based on the results, participants were broken down into five groups: less than or equal to five hours a night, six hours, seven hours, eight hours and more than or equal to nine hours a night. Over the three years, there were 140 incident cases of dementia. Researchers discovered those who slept nine hours or more were almost twice as likely to develop dementia as those who slept for seven hours, even after adjusting for factors that could affect risk, such as age and smoking and drinking habits.

[juno jones]

5. And it would be interesting to see how poor sleep fits in with

odd working hours and working shifts of 10 hours or longer.

When I spent my 6-month stint at the bakery, which were (thanks to incompetant management) the most arbitrarily bizarre shifts I've ever encountered, I noticed all sorts of sleep problems; no REM, being exhausted and sleeping only a few hours before sitting up for hours wishing I could sleep, snoring, in short, all sorts of sleep problems that I'd never really encountered before. I got so forgetful and spaced out I wandered into one of my fave chinese places one night thinking it was around one in the afternoon, demanding to see the lunch menu. My regular waitress there still looks at me a little strangely. I couldn't remember details from one day to the next. I could read the same page of a book over and over with no recall. It has taken three months of relatively normal hours to get my body more or less back to where it was. I have an OK memory, but to watch it deteriorate in those months was a little unnerving.

Sleeplessness associated with alzheimer's? I'd tend to believe it.

[TwilightGardener]

7. Best thing I ever did was quit the night shift--

I was a night-shift RN for years, and never felt right--got sick very easily, couldn't sleep on my nights off, fell asleep behind the wheel driving home in the morning, had neverending digestive problems and a permanent brain fog, all of which would miraculously clear up after a week or two off during vacations or between jobs. You just can't get quality sleep between 9 am and 5 pm--it just doesn't happen. I still wonder if those years did irreparable harm to my health? The human body is simply meant to sleep 7-8 hours at night, case closed.

[juno jones]

9. Yeah, It's a shame that there is a necessity for some people to have to work

those hours. Emergency and hospital services are right up there as necessities.

The hours wouldn't have been so bad if I could have settled into a pattern. My crazy bosses liked to shake up our schedules every week or two, so constant adaptation to new schedules was part of it. I sometimes wonder if my ex-bosses worked at Abu-Garib (kidding, sort of).

The kids who did it seemed better off. They were still in that natural nightbird phase. Maybe it's better to do such things young. I wouldn't be surprised tho, if after a point it becomes a danger. I wonder if they've ever compared cancer, coronary deaths, etc up against health in shift workers. I know I was ill all the time when I was doing it too.

[Skittles]

12. I've worked nights for decades

(currently 12 hour shifts) and I am quite healthy, thanks....this may come as a surprise to you but there are a lot of folk who PREFER working nights - I LOVE being away from management, away from the herd, no rush hour traffic, etc.

[vadawg]

14. i do rotating shifts, one month of days, one of nights, fecks up the sleep pattern big time

[mainer]

6. This is why HRT in menopausal women may actually be a good thing

Lack of sleep from menopausal symptoms can make you feel stupid. I felt like I regained about 20 IQ points after I went on hormone replacement therapy and began sleeping through the night again. No one's taking these pills away from me. When it's a choice between a higher breast cancer risk or stupidity, I'll take the breast cancer risk.

[Hekate]

10. Swell. I have 2 sleep disorders and hubby is an insomniac. Our golden years may be a bit tarnished!

That is, if we can remember why... ;-)

Hekate

[HughBeaumont]

11. Modern life doesn't allow for 8 hours of sleep.

Either fix the damned calendar again, adding 2 extra hours, or just concede that too much of our time is consumed by something job/career/school related to have "8 hours of sleep". I'd have approximately 3 hours to make dinner, clean the house up, help my kid with his homework and find some "me" time before I would have to go to bed at 9:00 PM . . . just like I had to when I was a kid.

5.5 to 6.5 hours of sleep is plenty for me.

[Zomby Woof]

13. Reagan slept through his presidency

So I wouldn't say it's a full-proof theory.