Sleeping Less Than 6 Hours a Night In Midlife Raises Risk of Dementia 30%, Study Finds (cnn.com) 76
According to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, six hours or less of sleep a night between the ages of 50, 60 and 70 was associated with a "30% increased dementia risk," independent of "sociodemographic, behavioral, cardiometabolic, and mental health factors," including depression. CNN reports: "Sleep is important for normal brain function and is also thought to be important for clearing toxic proteins that build up in dementias from the brain," said Tara Spires-Jones, who is deputy director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, in a statement. Spires-Jones was not involved in the study. "What's the message for us all? Evidence of sleep disturbance can occur a long time before the onset of other clinical evidence of dementia," said Tom Dening, who heads the Centre for Dementia at the Institute of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham in the UK, in a statement.
"However, this study cannot establish cause and effect," said Denning, who was not involved in the study. "Maybe it is simply a very early sign of the dementia that is to come, but it's also quite likely that poor sleep is not good for the brain and leaves it vulnerable to neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease." Because the new study followed a large population over an extended period of time, it adds "new information to the emerging picture" on the link between sleep deprivation and dementia, said Elizabeth Coulthard, an associate professor in dementia neurology at the University of Bristol in the UK, in a statement. "This means that at least some of the people who went on to develop dementia probably did not already have it at the start of the study when their sleep was first assessed," said Coulthard, who was not involved in the study. "It strengthens the evidence that poor sleep in middle age could cause or worsen dementia in later life," she said.
"However, this study cannot establish cause and effect," said Denning, who was not involved in the study. "Maybe it is simply a very early sign of the dementia that is to come, but it's also quite likely that poor sleep is not good for the brain and leaves it vulnerable to neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease." Because the new study followed a large population over an extended period of time, it adds "new information to the emerging picture" on the link between sleep deprivation and dementia, said Elizabeth Coulthard, an associate professor in dementia neurology at the University of Bristol in the UK, in a statement. "This means that at least some of the people who went on to develop dementia probably did not already have it at the start of the study when their sleep was first assessed," said Coulthard, who was not involved in the study. "It strengthens the evidence that poor sleep in middle age could cause or worsen dementia in later life," she said.
Midlife (Score:4, Funny)
So now age 70 is "midlife". I look forward to living to age 140.
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Yes, Biden is a spry middle aged leader... and no he DOES NOT have dementia.
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Re:Midlife (Score:5, Interesting)
50 is the start, 70 is the end of both the study and of mid-life.
Also life-expectancy goes up if you exclude it to an older demographic. Because the math for calculating an average works out to a higher amount when you leave out the small values that didn't make your group. That's why infant mortality is often removed from life expectancy calculators, especially for insurance companies who don't use the same structure for a children's life insurance as they would for an adults whole or term life insurance.
It's not unreasonable to plan finances around living 80-90 years. And have some thought about of what to do if you live to be 100 or more.
Potentially society altering changes to longevity are probably in the lifetimes of Zoomers. Who may face productive working ages into the 90's and occasionally life going beyond 140 years. Without some significant breakthroughs I think the upper limit is probably around 160 years for the human species, but who knows how future generations might tackle the ethics of genetic manipulation.
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What, people are living to be 100 to 140 years old? I would take mid life to be late 30s thru early 50s, more or less.
While life expectancy [ourworldindata.org] of adults has gone up dramatically over the last century or two, the life expectancy of those making it to 100 has n
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What, people are living to be 100
that definitely happens.
30s thru early 50s, more or less.
it's more widely accepted to be 40s to 60s.
the life expectancy of those making it to 100 has not made that much progress,
Diet and exercise alone leads people making it past 100 up to winning the genetic lottery, that's not likely to change without selective pressure lasting for hundreds of thousands of years.
Of course we humans like to hack around nature. You see this in health and athletics. There are people today with more muscle mass than would have been possible even 100 years ago. People able to tackle once impossible technical rock climbs because of impr
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I could deal with living forever, I've still got a lot of things I haven't gotten around to yet.
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I have so many Steam games that I haven't beat yet. I intend to go through them during retirement, but even so, it's unlikely I'll finish even half of them before I die. If I also included all my old DOS games (I have probably 100 CD-ROMs) and console games, well that's not going to happen unless I have the spice melange.
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And have some thought about of what to do if you live to be 100 or more.
What, you mean apart from sitting in front of my lawn with a shotgun on my lap?
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You still get stuck with the same quandary, which comes first, the chicken or the egg, so which comes first dementia or sleeplessness, likely different strokes for different folks but they are very closely intertwined. Dementia likely does not just have impact on your social interactions but also on other brain controlled functions of you body, it is just less noticeable. A lot of that to do with, it is not just one nano strand of brain connections but a bundle doing the same thing, so losses are less notic
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PS I think people need to also step away from the idea that sleep is a simple thing, quite a lot is happening, it is really quite an active and complex interaction and it does not take much to interfere with it and it is complex and tricky and unhealthy to try to force it, until more it done to fully understand it. Like can a super glass of warm milk, figuratively speaking, be created to healthily promote it, promote sleep and promote recovery during sleep and slowly digest as you sleep, continuing to do it
Well I should be OK (Score:5, Funny)
I sleep six hours a day just at work so I should be a genius by 70!
Re:Well I should be OK (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well I should be OK (Score:5, Funny)
I'm a mattress tester you insensitive clod!
Re:Well I should be OK (Score:4, Funny)
That's not fair, I've applied for a promotion but they still have me on testing rubber sheets.
Zzzz (Score:3)
Zzzz
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Top!
great (Score:5, Insightful)
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Right up there with stress eating about obesity.
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I wake up too early due to a sinus issue.
Re: great (Score:1)
Try a pi/4 phase shift.
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Won't help - my head feels like it's going to explode after 4-5 hours.
Maybe the pandemic will save me (Score:4, Interesting)
I have been getting more sleep this past year, what with no commute...
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I have been getting more sleep this past year, what with no commute...
Same here. I literally get two hours more sleep a night.
I used to get up super early to be up well before the kids (with their own absurdly early starting times due to something something bus schedules), and then also to do my own commute.
Not looking forward to that part of "normal".
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I *should* be getting 2-3 more hours of sleep a night, but somehow I've only netted about 1 extra hour -- my natural night-owl tendencies have kicked in. But at least that puts me over the 6-7 hour range now...
Plaques (Score:5, Interesting)
First, why are all these comments shit? I can only guess these people have never really interacted with someone with dementia.
I think there are a lot of interesting aspects to consider here and lots of areas to continue research but maybe we could make some "fair assumptions" until the longevity of such studies comes to fruition. They mention how sleep helps clean up proteins and we know that dementia is called by plaques that build up in the brain. The research seems to say causation has not been established buy maybe we can make the leap that the proteins that form these plaques are being better managed when quality sleep is achieved. I think for follow-up it would be interesting to look at how different cultural sleep patterns affect this outcome. Do people from cultures which practice siesta, have less cases of dementia? What about more extreme sleep patterns? This comes to the root of asking which part of sleep is most helpful for clearing these plaques.
My mother has a severe form of dementia called Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome, though the reality is this disorder can only be completely diagnosed in death via autopsy because of how it causes regions of the brain to shrink. In particular, this form of dementia leads to some of the most emotionally ruthless individuals who often aren't just confused but angry. I spent a number of years working with her and my father trying to find a path to better restoring her but ultimately this disorder is caused by alcohol abuse and having a history of a stomach bypass. I do not have a lot of sympathy for this outcome but I do still have a strong desire to understand better the nature of the condition. My background is technology but I was the first to diagnose the disorder before seeking a professional opinion. The kicker here is that we know alcohol adversely affects sleep and my mother also suffered many years from sleep deprivation. When she started having the symptoms was slightly before she was 50. Now the disorder includes other aspects like the emotional imbalance that comes from other deficiencies but ultimately the relationship still seems to hold here that lower sleep quality expediates the development of dementia and that likely alcohol abuse can play into this. This too seems like it needs further research, the relationship between sleep quality, alcohol, and dementia.
It's totally a leap but I wonder what the role of the endo-cannabinoid system is in relation to building up these plaques that lead to the development of dementia. Generally physically activity can be very stimulating for the mind and I wonder if this too can be a related process for building habits that keep the brain healthy. Anyone who can point to any further research on this matter, I would appreciate it.
Lastly, I know for awhile dementia was being discussed as Type III diabetes because it relates to insulin resistance in the brain. However, research like this seems to be taking a completely different approach? Has this discussion of a relationship between diabetes and dementia been dropped?
Re:Plaques (Score:5, Interesting)
They mention how sleep helps clean up proteins and we know that dementia is called by plaques that build up in the brain.
We know there are several forms of dementia. One is "vascular dementia" caused by mini-strokes. One is Alzheimer's, whose cause is unknown. Autopsies often show amyloid plaques but therapies that target these plaques haven't yet worked in trials. Autopsies often show tau-protein tangles but therapies targeting these also haven't yet worked in trials.
(I'm quibbling with "we know", because we don't...)
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Agreed. That's why I primarily outline areas worthy of more research and ask for others to hopefully comment with other studies that outline potential other connections or other related research to this. I want a discussion more about what we know and what we are discovering.
Here you go (Score:3)
[...] ask for others to hopefully comment with other studies that outline potential other connections or other related research to this. I want a discussion more about what we know and what we are discovering.
Check out the glymphatic system [sfn.org], a recently discovered network of vessels that clear waste from the CNS. It was named in homage to the lymphatic system, which is where the glymphatic system connects.
It's linked to sleep, cleaning out proteins from the cerebral spinal fluid, and possibly Alzheimer's disease.
You have two remaining wishes.
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Since I now live in Qinghai China, my two remaining wishes are a serving of chicken dumplings and a gyro.
The information you linked is very interesting and does add some insight into the questions I posed. I also always find it interesting we are still learning more about our anatomy and there is still "undiscovered territory".
suggesting that increased glymphatic activity is made possible by the greater availability of space for the interchange between interstitial and cerebrospinal fluid
This part seems very interesting and instantly lead to the question of are there other ways to achieve this than sleep.
The finding that exercise appears to maintain glymphatic function could lead to new treatments that will likely be most effective when used early in disease onset.
During sleep or anesthesia in rodents, the glymphatic system cl
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They mention how sleep helps clean up proteins and we know that dementia is called by plaques that build up in the brain.
We know there are several forms of dementia. One is "vascular dementia" caused by mini-strokes. One is Alzheimer's, whose cause is unknown. Autopsies often show amyloid plaques but therapies that target these plaques haven't yet worked in trials. Autopsies often show tau-protein tangles but therapies targeting these also haven't yet worked in trials.
(I'm quibbling with "we know", because we don't...)
Even for very smart people, it is really easy to fall in the correlation = causation trap.
Re: Plaques (Score:4, Funny)
Hacking your sleep (Score:5, Interesting)
As an add-on to the previous comment:
Depression is often accompanied by insomnia, but so far there is no consensus on whether lack of sleep causes depression or whether depression causes lack of sleep.
Regardless (and on-topic with the parent post), if you are having trouble with sleep (or depression) you can take some steps to fix it.
Tim Ferriss suggests that grogginess after waking is related to insulin depression overnight, and suggests a high protein snack just before bedtime. He recommends one or two celery stalks with a tablespoon of almond butter in each.
Coffee has a half-life of about 6 hours in the system, with an exponential decay. For this reason it's recommended not to drink coffee within 10 hours of going to bed, but note that at bedtime you will still have a fair amount of caffeine in your system.
Additionally, long-term use of caffeine promotes adenosine receptors in the brain that negate the caffeine effect. Essentially, caffeine blocks the receptors, causing your brain to make more of them. Your productivity goes *down* accordingly, so that with long-term use your natural productivity is lower than normal and drinking coffee brings it back up to normal.
You read that right: after long-term use of coffee, drinking coffee doesn't give you a kick, it brings you back up to normal. It's reversal of withdrawal [theenergyblueprint.com], and there are a bunch of relatively new studies that confirm this. See summary image here [theenergyblueprint.com], and the linked page is replete with references.
Adenosine receptors regulate sleep. Getting off of coffee will take 3 to 9 days of withdrawal symptoms, but I haven't found a clear indication of how long it takes for the adenosine receptors to get back to normal. One study suggests 3 months, another suggests 7 weeks.
Of course, tune your mattress and sleeping arrangements to be quiet, dark, and comfortable. If you're waking up stiff or with a backache, get a new mattress. Virtually all persistent backache (ie - long term, doesn't heal) can be fixed by getting the right mattresses.
You can get a weighted blanket, which some people find soothing and help them sleep better. I don't like them because they tend to hold you in place all night and promote stiffness, but some people really like them. They're a cheap experiment to try.
Taking a hot bath or hot shower before bedtime will make you sleepy. It's not the heat, but the loss of heat when you get out that does it: the body takes cooling off as a sleep signal. (Per Joe Rogan podcast with Matt Walker [youtube.com], sleep researcher, who states that sleep signals are time, temperature, and light.)
Our eyes have a special, separate (from rods and cones) photoreceptor (glossing wildly) that's sensitive to blue light and affects our circadian rhythm. LED lamps/bulbs and displays emit a lot of blue light, which will confuse your sleep cycle. You can get red sunglasses for thin money on eBay (search "laser protective goggles") that filter out the blue and trick your mind into thinking it's sunset (or campfire), and will set your body to go to sleep. Also, don't stay up all night looking at your phone, or any other display. (Don't use cheap Chinese red laser protective goggles for actual protection from lasers, however. Get real laser protective goggles for that.)
If you have some money, you can get an ooler or chilipad: these are pads that have small tubes that circulate water from a chiller working on a timer. As we sleep our body temperature lowers, until right before waking where it shoots up again. The Ooler or chilipad wicks away heat while you sleep, and you can set it to reverse so that it warms you up at wake time. (Disclosure: I have one, and it works pretty well.)
In the morning, have a high protei
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He recommends one or two celery stalks with a tablespoon of almond butter in each.
Is this a joke?
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Let me help you (Score:2)
He recommends one or two celery stalks with a tablespoon of almond butter in each.
Is this a joke?
Let me help you with that. The following quote is from Tim's book "The 4-hour body", and you can use it as a search string to find the surrounding discussion:
6. Eating two tablespoons of organic almond butter on celery sticks before bed eliminated at least 50% of the “feel like shit” (1–3) mornings.
Although I should say, Tim is not especially given to making jokes and publishing them in books about physical health. But skepticism is an important skill to practice.
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>>Our eyes have a special, separate (from rods and cones) photoreceptor (glossing wildly) that's sensitive to blue light and affects our circadian rhythm. LED lamps/bulbs and displays emit a lot of blue light, which will confuse your sleep cycle. You can get red sunglasses for thin money on eBay (search "laser protective goggles") that filter out the blue and trick your mind into thinking it's sunset (or campfire), and will set your body to go to sleep. Also, don't stay up all night looking at your phone, or any other display. (Don't use cheap Chinese red laser protective goggles for actual protection from lasers, however. Get real laser protective goggles for that.)
Adding to this that OSs have been catching up to f.lux and pretty much all of them have a color-shifting program available, if not an outright native feature for it, even iOS. I suspect phone-in-bed use may be the bigger culprit so look into that or Twilight for android. If you like home design there are color-shift lighting solutions out there, and maybe some pricegouge-avoiding DIY projects here (or elsewhere online). I have no personal experience, but perhaps even a single shifting lamp in your bedroom c
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I have interacted with somebody with dementia, my late mother, and the comments are shit because either they haven't or even if they have it's easier to joke than it is to be serious.
My problem with any study that just says "dementia" is that dementia is a constellation of symptoms, not an actual disease. When my mother was diagnosed, I recall doing some research and finding that there are about 30 different underlying conditions that could be called "dementia". Of course Alzheimers gets all the press. A
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I thought I saw somewhere that the same plaques were also found in the appendix. And there was a theory that the body intentionally makes these plaques to slow an invasion of the organ as they saw it in people who got infected with internal parasites.
They are now electrically stimulating the vagus nerve as a treatmen
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I have heard about the fecal bacteria transplants. I missed that in my recollection when I made my post but yeah, I agree something far more complex is going on with bacteria in in the gut.
I also am familiar with the parasympathetic system because it's again something I think a lot of Yoga focuses on though again you don't often find Yoga teachers who can speak in detail about this part of our anatomy. My initial reading here didn't point to it being the main nerve of the parasympathetic system but that's t
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My initial reading here didn't point to it being the main nerve of the parasympathetic system but that's the general conclusion I draw, do you know if this is correct?
"It"? If you mean the vagus nerve, all I know is that it's the longest of the cranial nerves, innervates many areas/organs and is part of the parasympathetic system.
Meditation and other practices can slow our heart-rate and since this is regulated by the vagus nerve, it seems clear that our mental states can have an impact on the signaling occurring here -- do you think this is a fair conclusion?
Yes, and I think your correlations with yoga are interesting (something else I don't know about).
And I think the sleep hormone, "melatonin", is found in the gut, and "serotonin", melatonin's building block(?), is produced in the gut. Logically, that points to: Poor gut bacteria biome -> poor sleep hormone production -> poor slee
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Joke's on them (Score:1)
And try following this advice (Score:2)
..when you are homeless. The robot faux Star Trek TNG society we are trying to monster forth falls apart quick then, doesn't it?
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..when you are homeless. The robot faux Star Trek TNG society we are trying to monster forth falls apart quick then, doesn't it?
If you're homeless, seems there's a LOT more to be concerned with regarding your health and safety, long before dementia sets in.
Re: And try following this advice (Score:2)
Following doctors orders is not exactly #1 on the list. The "health and saftey" concerns tend to be focused on not freezing to death, and hoping that somebody does not try to light you on fire in the middle of the night. I've been homeless before, and living in LA, I see it everywhere. Most people in that situation do not have access to bathrooms that are not trashed and being only safe to enter with a hazmat suit on. And of course there is mental illness and drug use that if was not the reason for becoming
No dementia here (Score:2)
Almost all of my processes sleep all day, every day. (Except for pulseaudio and systemd, which always seem to be doing sumthin. Communist pinko bastids.)
Sorry for the dementia, autocrats - the free press (Score:1)
Sorry for the sleepless nights, autocrats [youtube.com]
We are dedicated to unbiased journalism worldwide and sleepless nights for autocrats [dw.com]
Parents?! (Score:3)
Re: Parents?! (Score:1)
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That explains Margaret Thatcher, then (Score:2, Insightful)
Four hours sleep and a completely sociopathic monster who left a broken country in her wake (and of course opened the doors for Enron and the subsequent global economic disasters and crashes).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mag... [bbc.co.uk]
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From that article, that also explains Donald Trump, who apparently "survives on three" (hours sleep/day). No surprise he is an incoherent mess.
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Unless of course, you're a mutant
https://tinyurl.com/nhej9c7n [tinyurl.com]
Yo Grark
Advise (Score:1)
A bottle with 100 pills costs about $5 which will last you 3 months.
Ok. S/W is out. What's my alternative? (Score:2)
There's only one conclusion to draw (Score:2)
Sleeping Less Than 6 Hours a Night In Midlife Raises Risk of Dementia 30%.
I'm doomed.
DBAs are doomed (Score:1)