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Missing Out On Deep Sleep Causes Alzheimer's Plaques to Build Up (discovermagazine.com)
"Deep, non-REM sleep helps people's brains to wash away toxic proteins and waste, a new study found, reinforcing the link between sleep deprivation, aging and Alzheimer's disease," reports U.S. News & World Report.
Or, as Discover magazine puts it, "Getting enough deep sleep might be the key to preventing dementia." The discovery reinforces how critical quality sleep is for brain health and suggests sleep therapies might curb the advance of memory-robbing ailments, like Alzheimer's disease... Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) churns through a system of brain tunnels piped in the spaces between brain cells and blood vessels. Scientists call it the glymphatic system. This system circulates nutrients like glucose, the brain's primary energy source, and washes away potentially toxic waste. And it may be the reason why animals even need sleep. The system takes out the brain's trash when we're asleep, and it shuts down when we're awake.
Maiken Nedergaard, a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, who led the new research, and her team were curious if the system works best and clears more waste -- like Alzheimer's causing beta amyloid plaque -- when animals are in deep sleep. To find out, the researchers used six different anesthetics to put mice into deep sleep. Then they tracked cerebrospinal fluid as it flowed into the brain. As the mice slept, the researchers watched the rodents' brain activity on an electroencephalograph, or EEG, and recorded the animals' blood pressures and heart and respiratory rates. Mice anesthetized with a combination of two drugs, ketamine and xylazine, showed the strongest deep sleep brain waves and these brain waves predicted CSF flow into the brain, the researchers found.
The lead researcher now argues that focusing on sleep in the early stages of dementia "might be able to slow progression of the disease."
Or, as Discover magazine puts it, "Getting enough deep sleep might be the key to preventing dementia." The discovery reinforces how critical quality sleep is for brain health and suggests sleep therapies might curb the advance of memory-robbing ailments, like Alzheimer's disease... Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) churns through a system of brain tunnels piped in the spaces between brain cells and blood vessels. Scientists call it the glymphatic system. This system circulates nutrients like glucose, the brain's primary energy source, and washes away potentially toxic waste. And it may be the reason why animals even need sleep. The system takes out the brain's trash when we're asleep, and it shuts down when we're awake.
Maiken Nedergaard, a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, who led the new research, and her team were curious if the system works best and clears more waste -- like Alzheimer's causing beta amyloid plaque -- when animals are in deep sleep. To find out, the researchers used six different anesthetics to put mice into deep sleep. Then they tracked cerebrospinal fluid as it flowed into the brain. As the mice slept, the researchers watched the rodents' brain activity on an electroencephalograph, or EEG, and recorded the animals' blood pressures and heart and respiratory rates. Mice anesthetized with a combination of two drugs, ketamine and xylazine, showed the strongest deep sleep brain waves and these brain waves predicted CSF flow into the brain, the researchers found.
The lead researcher now argues that focusing on sleep in the early stages of dementia "might be able to slow progression of the disease."
...their lives on sleep.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
https://www.sciencealert.com/marijuana-compound-thc-removes-toxic-alzheimer-protein-from-brain
https://www.salk.edu/news-release/cannabinoids-remove-plaque-forming-alzheimers-proteins-from-brain-cells/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S104474311300064X
I can stop eating healthily and exercising and simply SLEEP a lot more.
I love sleep. It's like death without the commitment.
Not that anyone cares about the nature or quality of the research when discussing their preconceived notions, but for the few that might here's a link to the paper, which for a change doesn't appear to be paywalled.
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/2/eaav5447
...CPAP has restored my sleep to where it was 10 years ago, and i feel so much younger. I was sure I was headed for the foggy clouded numbness of old age, but my youth is back, my mind is back and I owe it all to CPAP.
[Paid shill for the CPAP industry] .....NOT!!!
Nowhere is the increase in glymphatic output correlated with a reduction in amyloid plaques nor an hypothesized reduction in Alzheimer's
The study simply shows that if you choose the correct anesthesia you'll get higher glymphatic output
For those who want to know more in this domain, there's a very interesting book by Matthew Walker, called Why we sleep. It provides a very detailed description of what deep sleep and REM sleep do to your body.
You need D-sleep or you go insane and the world is destroyed.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
So if I spend 12 hours a day in a Ketamine-induced stupor, I can lower my risk of Alzheimer's disease? Of course, when you do that, you greatly increase your risk of a bathtub-induced drowning.
I'm screwed.
#DeleteChrome
Alzheimer's and pot is today's cancer and caffeine.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Please just stop, seriously 2 years of hate and ignorance?? Again, you are changing no one's opinion and furthermore, helping ruin this great website. There will be no hanging because we don't even do that anymore. And there is this wonderful thing called the Freedom of Speech and the US is the only country that has that as part of their Constitution,No other Country in the world has such guaranties. So everyone is entitled to their opinion regardless if they are for Trump or Not. The US isn't Russia. The only golfing you've done on your phone and I bet your swing still looks like something from CaddyShack.
While lighting the homeless on fire is of course reprehensible, I would imagine that developing alzheimers is low on the list of worries for the homeless.
infections in the brain such as P. gingivalis or Herpes(HSV1) travel along the nerve cells into the brain and cause inflammation (Protein plaques) to build up. Cannabis is also known to reduce inflammation.
Worked for MJ.
infections in the brain such as P. gingivalis or Herpes(HSV1) travel along the nerve cells into the brain and cause inflammation (Protein plaques) to build up. Cannabis is also known to reduce inflammation.
Well then - Let's get baked for our health! I am sold....
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
>"The current trend of obsessing and fixation and stress over not getting "enough sleep"? I sleep 5 hours a night. I go to bed when I'm tired, and don't use an alarm clock to wake up. I wake up feeling refreshed. I'm alert all day except for about 10 minutes around 3 PM. "
Indeed. It isn't as much the quantity of sleep that is important as much as the quality. I used to be like you. But now I can sleep for 6 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours, or 12 hours and still hardly waken and feel completely unrefreshed and tired. The sleep study was useless because I don't have "apnea" or "restless leg syndrome", which are apparently the only two things they know how to treat. All they could do was say my deep sleep was severely fragmented and send me on my way. "60 alpha intrusions into delta sleep every hour." And after 20 years of it, I can attest that it does adversely affect memory and seems to create or worsen other health issues.
I'm not a doctor but what you're looking for is a sleep study. The doctors that do that will be able to help you from there. I use a CPAP machine myself but they would need to see what is going on through the sleep study and give you what you need.
>"The current trend of obsessing and fixation and stress over not getting "enough sleep"? I sleep 5 hours a night. I go to bed when I'm tired, and don't use an alarm clock to wake up. I wake up feeling refreshed. I'm alert all day except for about 10 minutes around 3 PM. "
Indeed. It isn't as much the quantity of sleep that is important as much as the quality. I used to be like you. But now I can sleep for 6 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours, or 12 hours and still hardly waken and feel completely unrefreshed and tired. The sleep study was useless because I don't have "apnea" or "restless leg syndrome", which are apparently the only two things they know how to treat. All they could do was say my deep sleep was severely fragmented and send me on my way. "60 alpha intrusions into delta sleep every hour." And after 20 years of it, I can attest that it does adversely affect memory and seems to create or worsen other health issues.
That sucks big time. No physical possibilities like sciatica or there's a wear and tear issue on a spinal column disk that and make your arms need constant shifting through the night? I'm no medical doctor, but pain might factor in for kicking out of deep sleep.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I had considerable trouble getting to sleep, often taking over two hours after the lights went out. and, if I did manage to get to sleep, I'd wake up within two hours, and take another hour or two to get back to sleep. I'm retired, so even if I didn't really get to sleep until 5 AM, I could just sleep until I woke up. I had a sleep study done, and it consisted of my keeping a sleep diary of when I went to bed, when (roughly) I got to sleep or woke up and if I got up during the night. This told the doctor that I needed to shift my sleep cycle to earlier in the night and now my sleep is more regular and closer to normal. It still takes more time than I'd like to get to sleep, but at least I can get back to sleep without much trouble, and am ready to get up at a more reasonable time.
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During the time you are waiting for sleep to arrive. those hour or two.. what were you doing? if no visual stimulus (ie visual cortex is off -- no screen/cell phone, blue light etc), I guess just lying n staring at darkness is as good as sleeping for giving rest to your brain. The point is do you feel refreshed the next day - if it's similar to having 8 hours sleep, then it's fine. I think just waiting 2 hours in darkness and having 6 hours sleep shd be almost same as having 8 hours sleep. The deeper issue is if you feel fine and refreshed, then things are good. I've seen animals like cows in deep night, have their eyes open and say chewing (masticating?) - so the mammalian brain may only need visual cortex off (biggest real estate n consume of power) and not awareness/attention/thinking turned off. [auditory cortex can be on too.. ie you can engage in small talks/ listening to music or singing]
Back when I was having trouble getting to sleep, I was in bed, with the lights out, hoping to get drowsy enough to doze off. Somewhere around 5 AM, I would get solidly to sleep, and woke up some time after eleven. I was reasonably refreshed, but not as good as I should have felt.
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Maybe you're lucky. Maybe 5 hours a night is enough for you.
Now, I'm quite lucky too, but I have a very different situation. If I did as you do, I would happily sleep 16 hours and not even notice. That's just not compatible with a working life.
Hence I *have* to wake myself up. Now, I can operate on zero sleep (48 hours without sleep). I've done it quite a bit and it works fine. I can operate on 6-7 hours sleep, no problem, for a long and regular basis.
But I can easily imagine that if you were someone like me, that 5 hours might not be enough and/or that you don't *get* 5 hours sleep.
The study I'd be interested in is plaques in (former) junior doctors. They literally don't get anywhere near enough sleep. They are counter to all their own advice. Therefore, presumably, they should be a good study (and easy to get hold of!).
"Not enough" is a subjective term in itself, there may be a recommendation but for sure it's too much or too little for many people.
I think the gist of it is - deliberately abusing your sleep isn't a good thing. It's not a harmless action. You can't "make it up" on the weekend. It doesn't work like that. That's the point.
The people who are abusing their bodies and ignoring such natural responses are - in small and subtle ways - setting themselves up to risk of damage later, even if they feel fine just a day or two later.
Do you get exercise? Would you sleep more heavily if you were tired from exercise?
Likely your circadian clock is totally out of sync with the sun; if you are in low lattitude, it's best to follow the sun. It takes a few days, say 21 days to get it right but with practice you can do it. That is once sun is down, don't give artificial blue light stimulus to your eyes; and stay in darkness for like 7 to 9 hours just before sunrise. And go out in morning and let the sunlight (it's unique spectrum...visible light wavelengths) to hit ur retina.. doing for a week or so, your body will adjust the internal circadian clock - how we mammals were doing for 100s of millions of years before Edison came along and screwed the darkness.
>"That sucks big time. No physical possibilities like sciatica or there's a wear and tear issue on a spinal column disk that and make your arms need constant shifting through the night? I'm no medical doctor, but pain might factor in for kicking out of deep sleep."
No, they had no explanation. That is when I realized they really don't know all that much about sleep.
>"I had considerable trouble getting to sleep"
In my case, I can sleep just about anytime, anywhere. And I am unconscious within about 60 seconds with no more awareness until many hours later.
>"Do you get exercise? Would you sleep more heavily if you were tired from exercise?"
I will admit I do not get much exercise. It does seem to help a little, but it is extremely difficult to get motivated to do it, then I quickly lose interest.
UN Declaration of Rights is not followed, nor needs to be followed by countries. Secondly, reading through the UN Declaration of Rights shows how little the drafters of the UN declaration understood the concept of rights.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
I'm 42 years old and have noticed a real short to mid-term memory problem for the past 2 years or so. I literally have a tough time remembering things from 3 weeks ago and struggle to recall specific events more than 6 months ago. I've taken to making copious amounts of notes at work that I can refer to later because I know I won't remember. No-one in my family has it so I'm assuming that means the likelihood of me getting it is reduced (but not zero).
Friends and family put it down to absent mindedness or just overall busyness and say other things occupy my mind and it'll get better but secretly, I don't believe that's the case. Right now, I'm trying to remember what I did at work last Monday and other than recalling things that happened during recurrent meetings, I can't remember. E.g. I know I had a one-time meeting between 10:30am and 11:30am and for the life of me, I can't remember the discussion but can remember the people. Times and dates are especially hard, my wife has come to provide frequent reminders of dates and activities because I just cannot remember them anymore. E.g. if we have a appointment this Saturday, by tomorrow I will have completely forgotten.
For the past 4 years, I've been sleeping maybe 3-4 hours a night. I track this formally via my FitBit but informally, I make a note when I get into bed and then whatever time I get up. Of course, I know I'm worrying about it which is likely contributing to my stress and therefore lack of sleep but nonetheless, I'm def. not sleeping as much. No TV, no phone, just lying in the dark trying to think of nothing. Which is hard... I often imagine myself flying through the nothingness of space just to stop me from thinking about a thousand other things and the darkness of space helps kinda blank everything.
I will say - when I wake up, I'm full of energy. No problems swinging out of bed and getting on with the day so the 3-4 hours sleep isn't affecting my energy level.
I have spoken to my doctor and she was willing to prescribe sleeping pills but I got the impression she didn't really want to investigate the root cause. She's a crap doctor that way but with OHIP being the way it is, I haven't been able to find another doctor in a year. I declined her offer of sleeping pills - I tried prescribed Ambien once and it left me in a bad way - when I woke up in the morning, I was dizzy, dis-orientated, and it was a real effort to even sit up. I was tired until around noon so I gave that up after a few days.
What's the point of this long rant? I'm kinda terrified of getting Alzheimers so I have not researched it a lot. In everything else in my life, I am constantly researching things but the fear of Alzheimers has a strong mental block on me. I would love to hear from others who have experience with it, the folks here (for the most part!) are rational and intelligence so I value your feedback moreso than random forums
This advice might have helped several years ago when I was having trouble sleeping. It's more than a tad redundant now.
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How is anyone supposed to take you seriously when you literally make shit up?
The US has neither the only, or even the most robust constitutional protections of free speech.
Hey Mark,
This is kind of a long shot, but have you tried meditation? It's not directly related to sleep, but it does calm the mind and gets the body more in tune with itself. It may also be a way for you to refresh your mind without sleep. Though, as I said, a bit of a long shot.