Chronic sleep problems can put you on the road to Alzheimer’s
When was the last time you got a good night’s sleep?
I’m talking about eight hours of solid shuteye — no interruptions, no bathroom breaks. The kind where you wake up feeling refreshed, instead of limping to the coffee machine like a zombie.
If you’ve spent too many night’s tossing and turning, it turns out there’s a lot more than your beauty sleep at stake.
Because researchers are warning that when you don’t catch your 40 winks, you may be putting yourself on the fast track to dementia and even Alzheimer’s disease.
But the good news is that with just a few simple tricks, you can get all the sleep your body (and your brain) need.
And that could be enough to preserve your precious memories — and maybe even your life.
A study by the National Sleep Foundation found that more than half of Americans have trouble sleeping almost nightly.
And while all that lack of sleep isn’t doing much for your energy levels or mood, the damage it may be doing to your brain is a whole lot worse.
If you’ve ever cared for a loved one with Alzheimer’s (and we all have), you know what a terrible time they have trying to sleep at night. And that’s what got scientists studying the relationship between Alzheimer’s and sleep.
At first they thought that Alzheimer’s was shutting off the parts of your brain that help you catch some z’s — but it turns out it’s a lot more complicated than that.
You see, your brain has something called the “glymphatic system” that actually flushes away waste as you sleep — think of it as taking out the trash. And some of those toxins that are cleared are the ones that form the plaques found in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s.
That means when you don’t get enough sleep, those plaques stay in your brain and build up. The next thing you know, you could be speeding toward an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The way researchers at Oregon Health & Science University put it is that “changes in sleep habits may actually be setting the stage” for these mind-robbing diseases to take hold.
In fact, these researchers are getting ready to put the link between sleep and these Alzheimer’s plaques to the ultimate test. They’re going to study the glymphatic systems and the brains of people as they struggle to sleep — and for the first time, they might see Alzheimer’s disease develop right before their eyes.
That sounds terrifying to me. And it’s especially frightening if you’re not getting all the sleep you need.
The good news is that there are five simple tips you can use, starting tonight, to give your body all the sleep it can handle — and maybe even keep yourself from becoming another Alzheimer’s statistic.
Tip #1: Stay away from your computer, phone, iPad and other devices at least an hour or so before bedtime. The light they emit actually tells your body’s internal clock that it’s not time for sleep.
Tip #2: A good cup of herbal tea, such as valerian or chamomile, contains substances proven to relax your body and promote sleep.
Tip #3: Watch that late afternoon coffee break. With a half-life of five hours, a cup of Joe at four p.m. will mean you’ll still have 50 percent of that caffeine in your system at 9 p.m.
Tip #4: Use proven supplements like L-theanine to calm you down at night, and melatonin to help you get to sleep (and stay asleep). Melatonin is a natural hormone that regulates your body’s sleep cycles, but our levels fall off as we age.
Tip #5: Try sleeping on your side! In an animal study, researchers from Stony Brook University discovered that side sleeping actually helps your glymphatic system work better and clear out those Alzheimer’s plaques.
Sources:
“Lack of deep sleep may set the stage for Alzheimer’s” Jon Hamilton, January 6, 2015, NPR, npr.org
