One sleepless night can raise your Alzheimer's risk, Ukrainian expert warns
How insomnia is connected to Alzheimer's disease (photo: Vitalii Nosach / RBC-Ukraine)
In an interview with RBC-Ukraine, Ukrainian sleep specialist Daria Pylypenko reveals that recently scientists found out that the development of Alzheimer’s disease may be linked to insomnia and poor sleep quality in general.
Why sleep is important
A person spends about a third of their life sleeping, and it’s clear that nature made this function important for a reason. During sleep, among other processes, many restorative functions take place, as the intercellular space increases by about one and a half times during the process of falling asleep.
"Harmful metabolic waste products are flushed out. For example, beta-amyloid, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. A lot of research today is focused on finding a pill that could replicate this effect as if a person were sleeping," says Daria.
According to her, even one night of sleep loss leads to an increase in beta-amyloid levels. An experiment in the US with students demonstrated this: the beta-amyloid levels in students who didn’t sleep were 5% higher.
Long-term consequences of sleepless nights
If you don’t monitor your sleep patterns when you’re young, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease increases as you age, the expert states.
"Even sleep disturbances like parasomnias or sleep behavior disorders can be predictors of neurological diseases developing 10 years later," she warns.
However, this doesn’t necessarily have to happen, because humans are quite adaptable beings.
"Our primary evolutionary functions are reproduction and adaptation. We can adjust. We are, you know, flexible in that sense. So there’s always a risk zone, especially depending on one’s baseline health. But it doesn’t mean that if you’re not sleeping enough now, something bad will definitely happen," Pylypenko explains.
A person can be saved by their compensatory mechanisms.
"Humans will survive. We can catch up on sleep over the weekend. That also counts as compensation. Of course, not 100%, but still. Even taking a 10-minute nap during the day is also compensation," the sleep specialist adds.
Currently, researchers have not established a linear pattern, so it’s worth monitoring your sleep but without obsessive fears about potential future illnesses.
Earlier, we also reported on why you shouldn’t go to bed hungry.
This material is for informational purposes only and should not be used for medical diagnosis or self-treatment. Our goal is to provide readers with accurate information about symptoms, causes, and methods of detecting diseases. RBС-Ukraine is not responsible for any diagnoses that readers may make based on materials from the resource. We do not recommend self-treatment and advise consulting a doctor in case of any health concerns.
