Study: Long Sleep Time Might Be Associated with Dementia Risk
A recent study suggested that long sleep hours might be an early marker of neurodegeneration, and could be used to identify individuals at increased risk for dementia.
The study included 2457 participants from the Framingham Heart Study and examined the association between sleep hours and dementia for 10 years. Participants reported total sleep hours as short (less than 6), reference (6 to 9), and long (over 9 hours).
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During the 10-year follow-up, 243 cases of all-cause dementia were reported.
Their findings showed that prolong sleep duration was associated with an increased risk of dementia, and were driven by individuals with baseline mild cognitive impairment, and individuals without a high school degree. In addition, transitioning to sleeping for more than 9 hours over a mean period of 13 years before the start of the trial was associated with an increased risk for all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease.
Compared to individuals who slept 9 to 6 hours, individuals who slept for longer periods of time had smaller total cerebral brain volume and poorer executive function.
“Prolonged sleep duration may be a marker of early neurodegeneration and hence a useful clinical tool to identify those at a higher risk of progressing to clinical dementia within 10 years,” the researchers concluded.
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
Westwood AJ, Beiser A, Jain N, et al. Prolonged sleep duration as a market of early neurodegeneration predicting incident dementia [published online before print February 22, 2017]. Neurology. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000003732.