For many years, lack of sleep has been linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Now, researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University will conduct a study this year in an attempt to explain the association between sleeping problems and Alzheimer's disease.
Jeffrey Iliff, one of the researchers involved in the upcoming study, said that sleep deprivation "may actually be setting the stage" for dementia.
In 2013, Iliff and a team of researchers published a study in Science Translational Magazine that showed how deep sleep allows the brain to cleanse itself from waste, including amyloid plaques.
The buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain contributes to the development of Alzheimer's. Iliff and his colleagues, who conducted the study in mice, found that during deep sleep, this toxic waste is flushed out through cerebrospinal fluid that recirculates back into the brain.
"Both the movement of cerebrospinal fluid along the outside of blood vessels and back through the brain, and the clearance of amyloid beta, occur much more rapidly in a naturally sleeping and anesthetized brain, compared to the waking brain," Iliff explained in a blog post from OHSU's Brain Institute.
The challenge now is to validate the findings of the previous study in humans. Iliff and his research team received funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to do just that.
For the upcoming study, Iliff will work with Bill Rooney, director of the Advanced Imaging Research Center at OHSU, in order to use clinical imaging to help "measure the system's activity in the sleeping and waking human brain," Iliff said.
The study will then focus on analyzing what goes on during sleep in the brains of older people and those experiencing the onset of Alzheimer's.
If the study should validate previous findings linking lack of sleep and Alzheimer's disease in humans, it could open doors to new treatments and prevention mechanisms.
"It could be anything from having people exercise more regularly, or new drugs," Rooney told NPR. "A lot of the sleep aids don't particularly focus on driving people to deep sleep stages."
