Posted on 11/03/2021 8:02:45 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Multiple studies in humans and mouse models indicate that sleep disruptions raise the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by increasing the accumulation of disease-relevant proteins such as amyloid-beta (A-beta) in the brain. In the current study, a team discovered that restoring normal sleep by returning to normal the activity of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), a brain region involved in maintaining stable sleep, reduced the accumulation of A-beta plaques in the brain.
The study suggests that TRN not only may play a previously unsuspected driving role in symptoms associated with Alzheimer's, but also that restoring its normal activity could be a potential therapeutic approach for this severe condition.
The researchers began by determining whether their Alzheimer's disease mice would wake up more often than mice without the disease during normal sleeping hours. The researchers discovered that, indeed, the Alzheimer's mice woke up 50% more times than non-Alzheimer's mice. Moreover, the Alzheimer's mice got less than the normal amount of slow wave sleep, the deep restorative sleep during which waste products and metabolites are cleared from the brain. This was observed in the early stages of disease progression, before the animals developed memory deficits.
"We found that the magnitude of sleep fragmentation was directly related to plaque load in the brains of six-month-old AD mice."
In addition, [they] analyzed postmortem tissues from patients who had either Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment or none of those conditions. They discovered that, as in the mouse model, neurons in the TRN of Alzheimer's patients showed signs of having been less active when compared to the controls. Also, the brains of AD patients with the least active TRN had the highest A-beta plaque deposition. These findings support the possibility of a relationship between reduced TRN activity and increased accumulation of disease-causing proteins in AD.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Mother slept like a baby whole life.....dementia.
Father, sleep problems whole life.....no dementia.
They have no fricken idea.
So how, exactly, do I get my thalamic reticular nucleus to return to normal activity? It’s been complaining a lot lately.
“Alzheimer’s mice woke up 50% more times than non-Alzheimer’s mice”
Sleep fragmentation and micro-arousals is common with sleep apnea. You aren’t even aware that you are waking up, but it really destroys the quality of sleep. I wonder if AD is possibly related to sleep apnea.
I have had problems sleeping since I was in my early 20's. I got a "My Pillow" a while back and that helps with keeping me asleep once I fall asleep (I used to wake up several times during the night.) But, it hasn't helped with me falling asleep.
As an example, I am sitting here typing this on FR because I couldn't sleep.
I have a my pillow it was a gift. Liked it initially but then I found it better to be used as a knee pillow. Still use it tonight. Did not work too good as a head pillow. I like the firmer memory foam type pillows for my hea#d.
Reduce all lighting and use night mode lighting on your phone and computer in the evenings. Take melatonin an hour or so before sleeping. Let your room get cooler. Try sleeping more on your side, it you shore or may have apnea. There are herbal supplements that also help get you to sleep.
Mouse traps don’t work on mice that have alzheimer’s
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