HIDDEN LINK BETWEEN SLEEP N DEMENTIA UNCODING!

 Been more than a year since I posted here, because of my hectic schedules, but yes, now I'm back again with a topic that is hopefully insightful and interesting to ponder on..!

We all have days waking up feeling mentally foggy, groggy, or like our brain just couldn't hit the reset button the past night. Now what if I told you that the quality and duration of your sleep might not just be affecting your mood or productivity, but also your brain health- potentially laying the foundation for cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer's? While we all know that good sleep is essential to feeling rested, productive and happier the next day, recent past and ongoing researches uncover a connection between sleep disruptions in duration/quality and the buildup of toxic proteins in the neurons of the brain, like beta amyloid plaques, that are believed to drive Alzheimer's disease. So, from now on, start thinking of sleep as your brain's nightly clean-up squad, sweeping away waste, and giving your neurons a chance to recharge, and when this process gets disrupted, it might not just be a bad night's sleep you're dealing with, but a long-term threat to your cognitive well-being.

So what's this beta amyloid plaque which I have mentioned? Amyloid plaques are unfolded/misfolded proteins that deposit in various organs; and beta amyloid plaque is a type of amyloid plaque, increased extracellular deposits of which are typically associated with Alzheimer's disease. There's no complete and certain information on what it's normal function is, although there is increasing evidence to cite that it is involved in the brain's defense against invading microorganisms.

So during the daytime, we all make some of this beta amyloid protein in the brain. However, when we sleep, brain cells and their synaptic connections actually shrink. This shrinking expands the space between the brain cells, so that beta amyloid and other substances such as tau, that accumulate during the day can be flushed away. So the actual theory lies behind this- if you don't get enough sleep and quality sleep, your brain won't have enough time to drain away the beta amyloid plaques and other substances. These substances then continue to accumulate, day after day, due to prolonged sleep deprivation, predisposing and increasing the risk to dementia.

To all those who experience insomnia, which frequently involves fragmented or insufficient sleep, it comes as little surprise that it can be linked to cognitive impairment. Obstructive sleep apnea is another common sleep disorder. It occurs when the airway gets blocked, which then leads to lapses in breathing during sleep and reduced oxygen in the blood. Obstructive sleep apnea has been associated with daytime sleepiness as well as notable cognitive issues such as those related to thinking, memory, attention, and communication. Studies have also found that people with sleep apnea are at a higher risk for developing dementia.

Further research needs to be done to accurately define the relationship between sleep and dementia. A major complication to this is that the sleep-wake activity may be measured via multiple modalities, such as standard sleep questionnaires (eg: PSQI, SQS, etc), studies based on EEG to measure electrical activity in the brain to differentiate sleep and wake states, actigraphs, etc. Sleep questionnaires may be easily deployed to large groups of participants, but they rely on subjective self-report of sleep quality. However, if we look at more objective measures, such as actigraphy, they are quantitative but rely on rest-activity rhythms as a tool for sleep-wake activity. 

Future studies need to test multiple fluid biomarkers beyond just beta amyloid plaques and tau for Alzheimer's disease, including inflammatory markers, metabolic markers, and markers of synaptic function to explore the actual underlying mechanism behind this correlation. If sleep is ultimately found to be a reliable marker for dementia/Alzheimer's, then effective sleep therapies must be tailored to delay/prevent the onset of dementia throughout the population. Following successful early phase I and phase II studies translating the findings from animal models to humans, subsequent research needs to focus more on phase III trials and eventually translation to patients and clinical practice. Improving adherence to treatments for sleep-disordered breathing, is identified as a high priority need for future research. 

So to conclude, during deep sleep, CSF surges through the neural pathways, clearing metabolic waste like the beta amyloid. But here's the catch: when your sleep is disrupted, this delicate process stalls, leaving behind a molecular trail of damage that can slowly erode your memory and cognitive abilities. Imagine sleep as your brain's janitor skipping a shift- the debris piles up, and over time, the system begins to break down. This connection between sleep and dementia isn't just intriguing, but it is a wake-up call. So make sure you get a good night's sleep atleast from now on, if you haven't all these days!

Take care, stay happy and stay medically tuned always!!

Source: insightscare

Source: neuroscience journal