Researchers from the University of California find that deep sleep alleviates memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease – results of study magazine BMC medicine.
Deep sleep or non-REM sleep is the third and fourth stages of sleep. During this period, your heart rate and breathing are at their lowest, your brain waves slow down, your muscles and eyes are relaxed. This phenomenon is also known as the “recovery” phase of sleep: tissues are regenerated and immunity is strengthened.
The study’s authors note that this type of sleep may act as a protective factor against memory impairment in people who already have advanced Alzheimer’s disease. The study included 62 older people who had not been diagnosed with dementia. The researchers slept in the lab while watching the EEG. The researchers also used positron emission tomography (PET) to measure the amount of beta-amyloid deposits in the participants’ brains. Half of the participants had high protein accumulation, while the other did not. After sleeping, the participants completed a memory task that involved matching names to faces.
As it turned out, those who had large deposits of beta-amyloid (a protein that triggers Alzheimer’s disease) in their brains and also experienced higher levels of deep sleep performed better on a memory test than those who had the same amount of beta-amyloid. deposits, but who slept worse. Deep sleep did not have a memory-promoting effect in the group without pathology.
“Despite the presence of a certain level of pathology, there are certain lifestyle factors that will help alleviate and reduce the effects. One such factor is sleep, and particularly deep sleep, the authors said.