Health
Use Sleep and Exercise to Drop Your Dementia Risk
Too little (or too much) sleep may increase your dementia risk. Optimizing sleep and getting some exercise may reduce risk.
“Putting both contacts in one eye … almost mistaking nail glue for contact solution … going to sleep and forgetting the dogs were outside in the cold … putting the dust pan in the refrigerator — and the milk on the floor near the broom … looking for my glasses and wearing two pairs on my head … finding the butter in the dish cabinet … wearing a terrific suit and two different black pumps … and finally — going through the drive thru for coffee and ordering from the trash can.”
I love this piece from the Huffington Post, one illustrating some of the perils of sleep deprivation. Today, we look at the relationship between short sleep and dementia. First, I would like to explore one of the primary reasons that we sleep.
Sleep is a waste disposal system
Your brain consumes an immense amount of energy. While it represents only two percent of your body mass, it uses about twenty percent of your energy. This energy use creates a big problem: As the brain’s nerve cells gobble up the power, they produce debris that flows through the brain. This garbage can interfere with the normal functioning of the organ.
Nerve cell waste products include proteins, which, if not dealt with, can form lumps that are bad for the brain. An example is the clumping of a protein known as amyloid-beta. When developing in abundance, this protein can result in suboptimal thinking (including memory problems such as Alzheimer’s dementia).
Spinal fluid flushes our toxic waste
Cerebrospinal fluid flows in and around our brain and spinal cord region’s crevices, carrying nutrients and cushioning our brain. As we sleep, the spinal fluid can flush out toxins that have accumulated during the day. These toxic byproducts include β-amyloid, a central component of Alzheimer’s disease.
This central nervous system waste removal pathway is known as the glymphatic system, which is more active while we sleep: Sleep, glymphatic clearance, and beta-amyloid…
