The risk of dementia is almost doubled among those with common sleep disorder, the study finds

In the last evidence of the direct relationship between sleep and health, researchers have found that chronic insomnia can significantly increase the risk of dementia.

That is equivalent to a three -year acceleration of cerebral aging, according to the study, which was published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study followed 2,750 cognitively healthy older adults with an average of 70 years for a period of more than 5 and a half years. Approximately 16% of them suffered chronic insomnia, according to a press release for the study.

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The “chronic insomnia” is defined as a struggle to fall and/or remain asleep, which is different from people who try to follow the “perfect dream”, according to the author of the study Diego Z. Carvalho, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

“Chronic insomnia was associated with a 40% higher risk of developing cognitive and dementia deterioration,” said Carvalho, who is also a member of the American Academy of Neurology, News Digital.

During the study, 14% of people with chronic insomnia developed mild cognitive deterioration or dementia, compared to 10% of those who did not have sleep disorder.

The researchers were surprised to discover that participants with chronic insomnia who reported sleeping more than usual had fewer spots of white matter in the brain, areas where small vessel disease may have damaged brain tissue, which have been related to cerebrovascular disease.

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Additional tests also found that this group obtained a lower score in thought skills. This was after adjusting for other factors such as age, high blood pressure, sleep medications and sleep apnea diagnoses.

“Participants with chronic insomnia with a reduction in the reduced duration of sleep had poorest brain health, according to the findings of brain images related to Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular disease,” said Carvalho.

“The study emphasizes that even a short period of chronic insomnia can lead to possible harmful cognitive effects later in life.”

People who had the APOE ε4 gene, which are linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s, were more likely to show greater decreases in memory and thought skills, according to the study.

According to these findings, chronic insomnia could be a potentially modifiable risk factor for cognitive deterioration and dementia, according to Carvalho.

“This reinforces the importance of treating chronic insomnia, not only to improve sleep quality, but potentially to protect the health of the brain as we age,” he said. “Our results are also added to a growing body of evidence that the dream is not just about rest, but also about brain resilience.”

Dr. Marc Siegel, a senior medical analyst at News in New York, did not participate in the study, but said it shows an “important association” between sleep deprivation and dementia or cognitive deterioration.

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“We already know that the waste products of the autocar brain during sleep, and that the dream is restorative for brain cells, but we still do not know if the effect observed here is due directly to the lack of insomnia (in the tests) and the memory effects that could be in the short term,” he told News Digital.

“The problem of real neurodegeneration due to insomnia is probable, but not tested by this study.”

The cognitive decrease could be due directly to insomnia itself or the breakdown of the brain function that occurs as a result, Siegel added.

Dr. Earnest Lee Murray, a neurologist certified by the Board At the General Hospital of the Jackson-Madison County in Jackson, Tennessee, confirmed that it is known that chronic insomnia leads to health problems, both neurologically and not neurologically.

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“The study emphasizes that even a short period of chronic insomnia can lead to possible harmful cognitive effects later in life,” said Murray, who did not participate in the investigation, News Digital.

“The study also showed that chronic insomnia seems to alter the structure of the brain by increasing changes in white matter commonly observed in patients with vascular pathology, such as hypertension and diabetes.”

Potential limitations

The study had some limitations, said the researcher.

“We had no instruments to evaluate the severity of the insomnia at the beginning or with time,” Carvalho told News Digital. “We lack longitudinal sleep sleep data to observe sleep duration estimates over the years.”

“The follow -up does not help with your dream: good sleep practices do it.”

The researchers could not adjust for which patients received treatment by obstructive sleep apnea, such as CPAP therapy.

“We didn’t have complete information about the duration of the use or the doses of sleep medications,” added Carvalho.

He also reiterated that the study does not prove that insomnia directly causes cerebral aging, only that there is an association between the two.

Tips to improve sleep

Any person suffering from insomnia frequently should talk to your doctor about discarding possible medical reasons, Lee advised.

“The treatment may include cognitive behavioral therapy or pharmaceutical therapy can be an option,” he said.

The researchers recommended adopting best sleep practices, including the reduction of caffeine drinks in the afternoon, reducing alcohol consumption, avoiding large meals or exercising before bedtime and reducing exposure to electronics before bedtime.

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The researcher warned that the search for “perfect dream” can sometimes lead to an obsession with the excessive follow -up of sleep data, which leads to “performance anxiety”, which can end up having the opposite effect.

“The follow -up does not help with your dream: good sleep practices do it,” he said.

Carvalho also urged caution when it comes to taking a sleeping pill better.

“Although sleep medications can help and are available for patients with chronic insomnia, they do not work very well in the long term if good sleep practices are not adopted,” he said. “There is no solution for poor sleep problems that do not start with the patient doing the right things.”

Murray echoed the importance of good sleep hygiene, including not using electronic devices in bed and limiting the amount of light exposure in the room to improve sleep quality.

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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, GHR Foundation, May Foundation for Medical Education and Research, and a subsidy of Sleep Number Corporation to the Mayo Clinic.