Does bad sleep raise risk of Alzheimer’s?

JUST one night’s bad sleep could increase our levels of brain-clogging proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

These are routinely cleared out while we are asleep but scientists believe the process is interrupted by poor quality rest.

This could help to explain why people are more likely to develop the disease later in life when sleep is typically more broken.

It also suggests that chronic bad sleep increases the risk of getting Alzheimer’s.

While the exact cause remains elusive, sufferers have high levels of amyloid beta in the brain – a sticky plaque that stops cells functioning properly.

It took only a single night’s bad sleep for amyloid levels to jump by 10 per cent, an experiment found. After a week of disturbed sleep, there was also an increase in the protein tau – another signature of Alzheimer’s which forms tangly fibres and stops nutrients flowing. Lead scientist Professor David Holtzman, from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, said: ‘We showed that poor sleep is associated with higher levels of two Alzheimer’s associated proteins. We think that perhaps chronic poor sleep during middle age may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s later.’

Professor Holtzman’s team looked at 17 healthy adults aged 35 to 65 with no history of sleep problems or mental impairments.

Volunteers slept in soundproof rooms and their brain activity was monitored as their slumbers were interrupted by beeps. Their cerebrospinal fluid tests afterwards showed elevated readings of the two proteins.

But the findings, published in the journal Brain, do not prove it only takes a week of poor sleep to raise Alzheimer’s risk – only that it increased protein levels. Co-author Dr Yo-El Ju said: ‘At this point, we can’t say whether improving sleep will reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s.’

Dr Laura Phipps, from the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘Further research is needed to unpick the potential long-term benefits of sleep on Alzheimer’s risk.’