According to CNN (3/12, Lamotte), researchpublished online March 12 in JAMA Neurology “shows that excessive daytime sleepiness in cognitively normal elderly leads to a buildup of a plaque in the brain called amyloid.” CNN explains, “Depositing amyloid in brain tissue is the first known preclinical stage of Alzheimer’s and happens well before any obvious symptoms of dementia” can be seen.
TIME (3/12, Park) reports that in arriving at these findings, investigators “took advantage of a long-running study of nearly 3,000 older people in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging.” Next, the study authors “selected 283 people without dementia who were over 70, who answered questions about their sleep habits and agreed to have several brain scans for amyloid over the seven-year study period.”
HealthDay (3/12, Reinberg) reports that after comparing “the scans in search of changes in the brain,” investigators “found increased beta-amyloids in key brain areas in participants who reported being very sleepy during the day.”
Healio (3/12, Demko) reports the authors of an accompanying editorial wrote that “at present, maintaining healthy sleep and treating clinical sleep disorders must be a current priority for mental health in older adults.”
Related Links:
— “Daytime drowsiness increases risk of Alzheimer’s in elderly, study says,” Sandee LaMotte, CNN, March 12, 2018.