Sleeping poorly ‘increases your Alzheimer’s risk’

POOR sleep may increase the chances of people at risk of Alzheimer’s developing the disease, medical tests have shown.

Scientists did spinal fluid tests on 101 people with an average age of 63 who had a family history of Alzheimer’s or carried a gene linked to the condition. Those who slept badly or suffered daytime drowsiness had more biological markers for Alzheimer’s. Lead scientist Dr Barbara Bendlin, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, said: “It’s still unclear if sleep may affect the development of the disease or if the disease affects the quality of sleep.”

One theory is that toxic brain proteins called beta-amyloids, which have been linked to Alzheimer’s, are not cleared out of the body at night-time if sleep is disrupted.