Are You Losing Your Mind?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lack-sleep-tied-increases-two-alzheimers-proteins-brain

If you’re a regular person, you’ve gone through a period of life where for whatever reason, you stayed up too late for a consistent amount of time. It could be the birth of a child, a heavy class schedule, work, or even just for fun.

Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has been at least vaguely aware that not much, if any good comes from getting too little sleep. Effects can include trouble concentrating (feeling that right now), high blood pressure and mood swings. However, a new study has found another serious effect on our body caused by sleep deprivation, increased odds for the development of Alzheimer’s.

Two proteins, A-beta and tau, levels are much higher in people who suffer from a lack of sleep. Tau levels were found to have an over 51% increase in adults who are not getting sufficient amounts of sleep. Getting proper amounts of sleep however, will help the brain to flush out these proteins. This study implies that getting treatment for sleep disorders in your mid-life, may prevent you from needing Alzheimer’s treatment in the future.

Alzheimer’s is a disease which terrifies American’s and the general population around the world. Much of the fear is caused by the apparent loss of one’s independence and functionality. For decades, researchers have been searching for ways in which the disease can be both prevented and cured. These efforts have been met with relatively little success so far.

According to this study, there is at least one preventative method that all of us, rich or poor, man or woman, will be able to use. The A-beta and Tau proteins which lead to a higher probability of the development of Alzheimer’s can be reduced by nearly 52% if we are able to better regulate our sleep schedules and get a health amount of sleep each night. A healthy sleep schedule has always been something worthy of working towards, but now we have another incentive to make sure we get our lives on track.

A discovery about the cause of a disease often leads to progression in discoveries about treatment. Don’t relax just yet, but we might be witnessing the first steps towards prevention and a cure.