Kaitlyn D’Onofrio

DocwireNews

Frequent daytime drowsiness in otherwise healthy adults may be a warning sign of Alzheimer&rsquo;s later in life, according to a new study published in the journal&nbsp;Sleep.&nbsp;Researchers assessed 124 participants (mean age, 60.1 years) and asked them, &ldquo;Do you often become drowsy or fall asleep during the daytime when you wish to be awake? (e.g. falling asleep while watching TV or reading)&rdquo; and &ldquo;Do you nap?&rdquo;&nbsp;with response options of &ldquo;daily,&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;1&ndash;2 times/week,&rdquo; &ldquo;3&ndash;5 times/week,&rdquo;&nbsp;and &ldquo;rarely or never.&rdquo;&nbsp;An average of 15.7 years after answering the questions, participants underwent a brain scan looking for&nbsp;&beta;-amyloid (A&beta;), the main component of the&nbsp;amyloid plaques&nbsp;found in the brains of Alzheimer&rsquo;s patients.&nbsp;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
There are numerous reasons why your body needs restful, quality sleep but a crucial factor is that during sleep, your brain&rsquo;s waste removal system (the glymphatic system) &lsquo;takes out the garbage,&rsquo; clearing out the waste products keeping <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Alzheimers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Alzheimers</a> at bay. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/brainhealth?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#brainhealth</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/health?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#health</a> <a href="https://t.co/3bzvM2mkhU">pic.twitter.com/3bzvM2mkhU</a>
&mdash; Lori Shemek, PhD (@LoriShemek) <a href="https://twitter.com/LoriShemek/status/1039132985520529410?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2018</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>At baseline, 24.4% of participants reported excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), and 28.5% said they nap during the day. There was no correlation between EDS and napping.&nbsp;When adjusting for confounding factors, those with EDS were 2.75 times more likely to have&nbsp;A&beta;&nbsp;in the brain than those without it; in unadjusted analyses, the rate was 3.37. Nappers were 1.86 times as likely than non-nappers to have&nbsp;A&beta;&nbsp;when adjusting for confounding factors, which the study authors called &ldquo;nonsignificant,&rdquo; and about twice as likely in unadjusted analyses, which they described as &ldquo;trend-level.&rdquo;&nbsp;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Can daytime sleepiness predict Alzheimer's? <a href="https://t.co/A9Ej3uhSvX">https://t.co/A9Ej3uhSvX</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mnt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mnt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/alzheimers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#alzheimers</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sleep?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sleep</a> <a href="https://t.co/kE9qFpoDOD">pic.twitter.com/kE9qFpoDOD</a>
&mdash; Medical News Today (@mnt) <a href="https://twitter.com/mnt/status/1038685948559745025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2018</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>&ldquo;Factors like diet, exercise and cognitive activity have been widely recognized as important potential targets for Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease prevention, but sleep hasn&rsquo;t quite risen to that status&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;although that may well be changing,&rdquo; said lead study author Dr. Adam P.&nbsp;Spira,&nbsp;an&nbsp;associate professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.&nbsp;&nbsp;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Sleep is a critical time of healing for the body, especially of the brain. Poor <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sleep?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sleep</a> quality &amp; quantity increases <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Alzheimer?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Alzheimer</a>&rsquo;s Disease occurrence. Get those needed zzz&rsquo;s! Proper estrogen levels needed in women for quality sleep! <a href="https://t.co/TSgydwRbsl">https://t.co/TSgydwRbsl</a>
&mdash; Felice Gersh MD (@DrFeliceGersh) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrFeliceGersh/status/1038398631437639680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2018</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>&ldquo;If disturbed sleep contributes to Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease,&nbsp;we may be able to treat patients with sleep issues to avoid these negative outcomes,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;The study&rsquo;s results&nbsp;bring up new questions for discussion. While researchers found a correlation between&nbsp;A&beta;&nbsp;presence and EDS, the cause and effect&nbsp;remains&nbsp;less clear. Study authors took away four possible interpretations of their data:&nbsp;<ol>
<li>EDS at baseline may have resulted directly from disturbed sleep that itself promotes A&beta; deposition&nbsp;</li>
<li>Baseline EDS resulted indirectly from A&beta; deposition&nbsp;</li>
<li>Rather than being a marker of risk for A&beta; deposition, EDS&nbsp;actually promotes&nbsp;A&beta; aggregation&nbsp;</li>
<li>Alterations in circadian rhythms may have played a role in&nbsp;all of&nbsp;the above scenarios&nbsp;</li>
</ol>Additional studies may more definitively identify the link between EDS and Alzheimer&rsquo;s, which currently has no cure.&nbsp;If and when&nbsp;a cure is developed, prevention strategies will still be important,&nbsp;Spira&nbsp;noted.&nbsp;&ldquo;There is no cure yet for Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease, so we have to do our best to prevent it. Even if a cure is developed, prevention strategies should be emphasized,&rdquo;&nbsp;he said. &ldquo;Prioritizing sleep may be one way to help prevent or perhaps slow this condition.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://proddocwire.wpengine.com/future-of-medicine/fda-grants-breakthrough-designation-for-alzheimers-digital-therapeutic/">Read about&nbsp;DTHR-ALZ,&nbsp;a product given Breakthrough Device designation created to treat Alzheimer&rsquo;s.</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://proddocwire.wpengine.com/docwire-pick/future-of-medicine-picks/the-wayback-project-vr-helping-people-with-alzheimers/">Read about how virtual reality helps Alzheimer&rsquo;s patients.</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://proddocwire.wpengine.com/docwire-pick/kidney-hemodialysis-higher-risk-of-dementia/">Read about the link between kidney hemodialysis and dementia.</a>&nbsp;Sources:&nbsp;<a href="https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsy152/5088807">Sleep</a>, <a href="https://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2018/more-daytime-sleepiness-more-alzheimers-disease.html">Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health</a>&nbsp;

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Daytime Sleepiness a Possible Predictor of Alzheimer’s

Frequent daytime drowsiness in otherwise healthy adults may be a warning sign of Alzheimer’s later in life, according to a new study published in the journal Sleep.  ...