The history of sleep predicts the pathology of late Alzheimer's

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<div data-thumb = "https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/tmb/2019/sleephistory.jpg" data-src = "https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/ newman / gfx / news / 2019 / sleephistory.jpg "data-sub-html =" Mean distribution of tau and β-amyloid in healthy elderly people Credit: Winer et al. JNeurosci 2019 ">

Sleep patterns can predict protein accumulation of Alzheimer's disease later in life, according to a new study of older men and women, published in JNeurosci. These findings could lead to new early diagnosis and prevention measures based on sleep in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is badociated with sleep disturbance and an accumulation of tau and protein in the brain, which can occur long before the onset of characteristic memory disorders. Two types of sleep waves in the hippocampus, slow oscillations and spindles of sleep, are synchronized in young individuals, but it has been shown that old age lacked coordination.

Matthew Walker, Joseph Winer, and colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley found that a decrease in slow oscillation / sleep pin synchronization was badociated with a higher tau, whereas amplitude Slow wave activity was badociated with higher levels of β-amyloid.

The researchers also found that a decrease in the amount of sleep during aging, from the 50s to 70s, was badociated with higher levels of β-amyloid and tau later in life.

This means that changes in brain activity during sleep and that the amount of sleep during these periods could serve as an alarm signal for Alzheimer's disease, thus enabling early preventative care.