Chronic insomnia linked to a higher risk of dementia and faster brain aging

In the latest evidence of the direct relationship between sleep and health, researchers have found that chronic insomnia can considerably increase the risk of dementia.

This is equivalent to an acceleration of three years of cerebral aging, according to the study, which was published in Neurology, the Revue de l’éfenican Academy of Neurology.

The study followed 2,750 elderly people in good cognitive health with an average of 70 years over a period of more than 5 and a half years. About 16% of them suffered from chronic insomnia, according to a press release from the study.

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“Chronic insomnia” is defined as a struggle to fall and / or remain asleep – which is different from people who try to continue the “perfect sleep”, according to the study author, Diego Z. Carvalho, MD, of the Mayo Clinic de Rochester, Minnesota.

“Chronic insomnia was associated with an increased risk of 40% to develop cognitive disorders and dementia,” Fox News Digital Carvalho told Fox News, who is also a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers have discovered that chronic insomnia can considerably increase the risk of dementia. (istock)

During the study, 14% of people with chronic insomnia developed a slight cognitive disability or dementia, against 10% of those who did not have sleep disorder.

Researchers were surprised to note that participants with chronic insomnia who said they had slept more than usual had fewer white substance stains in the brain – areas where small vessels’ disease can have damaged brain tissue, which has been linked to cerebrovascular disease.

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Additional tests have also revealed that this group has obtained a score lower than the skills of reflection. It was after adjustment for other factors such as age, high blood pressure, sleep drugs and sleep apnea diagnoses.

“Participants with chronic insomnia with a perceived duration of sleep were perceived had lower brain health, according to the results of brain imagery linked to Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular diseases,” said Carvalho.

“The study stresses that even a short period of chronic insomnia can lead to potential prejudicial cognitive effects later in life.”

People who had the APOE ε4 gene, which is linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s, were more likely to show greater drop in memory and reflection, according to the study.

Based on these results, chronic insomnia could be a potentially modifiable risk factor in cognitive and dementia, according to Carvalho.

“Chronic insomnia” is defined as a struggle to fall and / or remain asleep – which is different from people who try to continue the “perfect sleep,” said the principal researcher. (istock)

“This strengthens the importance of treating chronic insomnia-not only to improve the quality of sleep, but potentially to protect the health of the brain as we age,” he said. “Our results also add to an increasing number of evidence that sleep is not a question of rest – it is also cerebral resilience.”

Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News principal medical analyst in New York, was not involved in the study, but said that he shows an “important association” between sleep deprivation and dementia or cognitive disorders.

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“We already know that the brain self-cleaning the waste during sleep, and that sleep is restorative in brain cells-but we still do not know if the effect observed here is directly due to the inattention of insomnia (on tests) and the effects of memory that could be in the short term,” he told Fox News Digital.

“The question of real neurodegeneration due to insomnia is likely, but is not proven by this study.”

Participants with chronic insomnia who said they had slept more than usual had fewer white substance stains in the brain – areas where small vessels’ disease may have damaged the brain tissue, which has been linked to cerebrovascular disease. (istock)

The cognitive decline could be directly due to insomnia itself or the rupture of the brain function which occurs accordingly, added Siegel.

Dr Earnest Lee Murray, a certified neurologist from the board of directors At the Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee, confirmed that chronic insomnia has been known for a long time to lead to health problems, both neurologically and non-neurologically.

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“The study stresses that even a short period of chronic insomnia can lead to potential prejudicial cognitive effects later in life,” said Murray, who was not involved in research in Fox News Digital.

“The study has also shown that chronic insomnia seems to change the structure of the brain by increasing changes in white matter commonly observed in patients with vascular pathology, such as hypertension and diabetes.”

Potential limitations

The study had certain limits, noted the researcher.

“We had no instruments to assess the seriousness of insomnia at the start or over time,” said Carvalho to Fox News Digital. “We lack longitudinal data on sleep to examine estimates of the duration of sleep over the years.”

“The follow -up does not help with your sleep – good sleep practices do it.”

Researchers were also able to adapt for whom patients received treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, such as CPAP therapy.

“Nor did we have complete information on the duration of use or doses of sleep drugs,” added Carvalho.

He also reiterated that the study does not prove that insomnia directly causes brain aging, only that there is an association between the two.

Advice to improve sleep

Anyone who suffers from insomnia on a frequent basis should speak with his doctor on the screen of potential medical reasons, advised Lee.

“Treatment may include cognitive behavioral therapy, or pharmaceutical therapy can be an option,” he said.

Researchers recommended that you adopt best sleep practices, including removing caffeinated drinks in the afternoon, reducing alcohol consumption, avoiding large meals or exercising before bed and reducing exposure to electronics before bedtime.

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The researcher warned that pursuing “perfect sleep” can sometimes lead to an obsession with excessive monitoring of sleep data, leading to “performance anxiety”, which can end up having the opposite effect.

“Monitoring does not help with your sleep-good sleep practices do it,” he said.

Carvalho also urged caution when it comes to taking a pill for better sleep.

Researchers recommended that you adopt best sleep practices, including removing caffeinated drinks in the afternoon, reducing alcohol consumption, avoiding large meals or exercising before bed and reducing exposure to electronics before bedtime. (istock)

“Although sleep drugs can help and are available for patients with chronic insomnia, they do not work very well in the long term if good sleep practices are not adopted,” he said. “There is no solution for bad sleep problems that do not start with the patient who does the right things.”

Murray echoes the importance of good sleep hygiene, in particular by not using electronic devices in bed and limiting the amount of exposure to light in the room to improve the quality of sleep.

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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the GHR Foundation, the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, and a subsidy of Sleep Number Corporation to Mayo Clinic.