ergo-log.com

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

11.10.2015

Shortage of sleep increases chance of dementia

A lifestyle with too little sleep is likely to lead to dementia, neuroscientists at Columbia University write in Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders Extra. The researchers discovered that of all over 65s who have a chronic lack of sleep, almost half are likely to develop dementia within a few years.

Study
The researchers studied 1041 over 65s who did not have dementia. Just before the study started the researchers asked the participants whether they were getting enough sleep and whether they felt rested during the day. After that the researchers followed the participants for three years.

Results
At the end of the three years, 78 participants [7.2 percent] had been diagnosed as having dementia. The participants with sleep problems in particular developed dementia. The chance of participants in this group developing dementia was 1.2 times higher than those who had no sleep problems.

You could argue that a 20 percent higher chance is nothing to get excited about. But the chance of developing dementia was much higher among the participants with serious sleep problems, as you can see in the figure below. Of the participants who said that none of the time did they get enough sleep, almost forty percent developed dementia.

The correlation between sleepiness during the daytime and dementia was even stronger than the correlation between too little sleep and dementia. About half of the participants who said they were sleepy "all the time” during the day developed dementia during the course of the study.

Conclusion
"Our study suggests that sleep inadequacy and increased daytime sleepiness are risk factors for dementia, [...] in the elderly population, independent of demographics, clinical factors, and depression", the researchers wrote. "Our findings may have significant public health implications and expand upon previous findings."

"However, further investigation is needed in order to replicate these findings and further examine the possible biological mechanisms underlying the observed associations. Investigation of such mechanisms could allow future interventional studies to provide us with more convincing evidence for the importance of good sleep quality in relation to the risk of dementia."

Source:
Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord Extra 2015;5:286-95.

More:
This many hours of sleep you need to prevent dementia 13.07.2021
Walk at least two kilometres a day for protection against dementia 09.12.2011
How to halve your risk of Alzheimer's 03.11.2011

Archives:
Alzheimer's & Dementia
Sleep

How sleep makes men more masculine, and protects women against cancer Just before and during your sleep the body releases the hormone melatonin. The better the quality of your sleep, the greater the amount.	Sleep better - live longer Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh came to this conclusion after doing a study in which they followed 184 healthy men and women aged 58-91 for an average of 13 years.	Sleep deprivation causes 'social leprosy' More and more people are not sleeping enough, and as a result, we are becoming increasingly lonely.