Chronic insomnia in adults increases the risk of memory loss and predisposes to neurodegenerative diseases, indicates a Montreal study. An observation that gives hope for a new way of treating Alzheimer’s disease, which is still poor in treatment.
“Developing insomnia while still relatively healthy is associated with a greater risk of having a diagnosis of memory loss. We are then, subsequently, more at risk of having neurodegenerative diseases, ”summarizes the neurologist and consultant in sleep disorders, Thien Thanh Dang-Vu, who co-wrote the study.
The analysis is based on data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, which surveys nearly 30,000 Canadians aged 45 or older about their health every three years.
“We know that Alzheimer’s disease generally develops later than in the fifties, […] but there really isn’t an age to start taking care of your sleep,” says Dr.r Dang Vu. About one in ten adults suffer from chronic insomnia.
A new treatment?
The result of the research is important, since it makes it possible to target a “risk factor on which we could potentially act” to curb Alzheimer’s disease, rejoices the professor from Concordia University.
“The next step is to see if, by treating insomnia in these elderly people, we will reduce or stabilize this cognitive and neurodegenerative risk over time,” he explains. A study is also underway, and people with insomnia between the ages of 25 and 65 who wish to participate can write to [email protected].
If the American health authorities authorized on January 6 a new drug against Alzheimer’s disease, treatments remain rare. There are, however, several treatments for chronic insomnia. “We have solutions, even without medication”, underlines the Dr Dang Vu.
The “first-line” approach consists of psychological interventions to “better adapt one’s behavior and reassess one’s beliefs in relation to sleep”. The treatment is effective for “more than half of the patients”, but is expensive, particularly due to the lack of psychologists available and trained in the practice.
Drug solutions also exist. The Dr Dang-Vu warns, however, that “certain drugs used for insomnia, which tend to cause shallower sleep, […] can be deleterious to memory.
Normal changes with age
There is, for the moment, no direct link between insomnia and Alzheimer’s disease, specifies Thien Thanh Dang-Vu. All adults who have trouble sleeping are therefore not at risk of insomnia, and even less of having Alzheimer’s disease, he explains.
“As you age, there are normal changes that occur with respect to sleep. For example, the fact of having a less deep, more fragmented sleep, during which one wakes up more often, a sleep which is also less regular, less adapted to the day-night cycle, “explains the member of the Neurobiology Research Group behavior from Concordia University.
For it to be chronic insomnia, the person must suffer from this sleep disorder at least three nights a week, for at least three months. And this must have an “impact on the functioning of [sa] daytime. The person feels that he is tired, that he has less attention or that it affects his productivity”.
Many scientists have long been interested in risk factors for degenerative diseases. But “most of the studies that currently exist […] do not characterize sleep in such a precise way,” says the man who is also vice-president of research at the Canadian Sleep Society.
” The studies [précédentes] showed that people who sleep too little have a higher risk of having memory problems. […] But we can estimate sleeping less than six hours for different reasons. »
In the study co-authored with researchers from Université de Montréal, Concordia University and McGill University, Dr.r Dang-Vu focused specifically on insomnia “taking into account all other known factors that possibly contribute to this cognitive impairment, such as medications, sleep durations, other sleep disorders, or factors socio-demographic,” he points out.
This content is produced in collaboration with Concordia University.