Alzheimer's demonstrated link with poor quality sleep

There is a direct link between Alzheimer's and poor quality sleep: this is demonstrated and explained for the first time by research by the Sleep Medicine Center of the Molinette hospital of the City of Health of Turin and the University of the capital Piedmontese.

They examined the effect of disturbed sleep in mice genetically predisposed to the deposition of beta-amyloid, a protein which irreversibly compromises the cognitive functions of the animal even when young.

The work was published in the international scientific journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications.

The only fragmentation of sleep obtained by inducing short awakenings without modifying the total sleep time, for a period of one month (approximately corresponding to three years of human life), compromises the functioning of the glymphatic system, increasing the deposit of the protein in question.

The Center, directed by Alessandro Cicolin, and the Neuroscience Institute of Cavalieri Ottolenghi (Nico) with Michela Guglielmotto, both belonging to the Rita Levi Montalcini Neuroscience Department of the University of Turin, collaborated on the work.

It is known that night rest in patients affected by Alzheimer's disease is often disturbed up to a real inversion of the sleep-wake rhythm, but it has also been observed that the sleep disorders themselves (such as sleep deprivation, insomnia and apnea) can negatively influence the course of the disease.

In patients with disturbed sleep, both in terms of quantity and quality, there is an increase in the brain deposit of the protein (beta-amyloid) implicated in the genesis of Alzheimer's disease.

The study demonstrated that this increase depends on its reduced elimination by the glymphatic system, the 'cleaning system' of the brain, particularly active during deep sleep.