New research suggests that substandard sleep could increase the risk of a person developing Alzheimer's disease, and the damage may start years before someone starts to have memory issues.
At the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Monday, Dr. Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley, announced: "It's very clear that sleep disruption is an under-appreciated factor. It's a new player on the scene that increases risk of Alzheimer's disease." Walker and other researchers gave 26 cognitively healthy volunteers in their 70s PET scans to measure the build up of beta-amyloids, sticky proteins that are the main component of plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The subjects were given words to memorize and their brain waves were measured as they slept.
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