Just one night of poor sleep can significantly increase levels of a toxic brain substance linked to Alzheimer’s disease, a study has found.
Researchers used a radioactive tracer to measure the build-up of amyloid-beta peptide in the brains of 20 volunteers aged 22 to 72 over the course of two nights.
For one of the nights, participants were allowed a restful period of sleep. For the other, they were sleep deprived.
Positron Emission Tomography (Pet) scans were used to track the tracer. They showed that restricting sleep to as little as five hours led to a “significant increase” in amyloid-beta burden in two brain regions vulnerable to damage in Alzheimer’s patients.
The hippocampus plays a key role in memory while the thalamus acts as a relay centre for motor and sensory nerve signals.
Amyloid-beta is a protein building block that accumulates in sticky “plaques” in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, leading to the destruction of neurons.
Sleep may play an important role in a natural “waste disposal” system that clears potentially harmful material including amyloid-beta out of the brain, scientists believe.
The new findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
US lead author Dr Ehsan Shokri-Kojori, from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues wrote: “This study documents an effect of one-night sleep deprivation on amyloid-beta burden in the hippocampus, thus providing preliminary evidence that sleep, among other factors, could influence amyloid-beta clearance in the human brain.
“Our results highlight the relevance of good sleep hygiene for proper brain function and as a potential target for prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at the charity at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “There is growing evidence of a link between disrupted sleep and Alzheimer’s disease, but it is difficult to tease apart cause and effect to determine whether sleep problems might cause Alzheimer’s brain changes or vice-versa.
“This very small study suggests that one night of sleep deprivation can raise levels of the hallmark Alzheimer’s protein amyloid, strengthening suggestions that sleep is important for limiting the build-up of this protein in the brain.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here