Biology in Action

This is interesting to me, as my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. What intrigues me about this article is that it says a lack of sleep can ultimately lead to Alzheimer’s. This cannot be true for all patients. My grandfather is living proof. Even when he was younger he always slept 8 hours a night and now he sleeps 10-12 hours a night and takes sporadic naps throughout the day as well. At 86, he deserves the rest. After all, he’s a tired guy, but despite all the things he’s experienced in his life, a lack of sleep is certainly not one of them. I wonder if this is just a coincidence rather than a correlation.

My name is Kathy and I am the full time caregiver for my eighty one year-old Dad who has Alzheimer’s and lives with me in North Carolina.

When my Mom died in 2004 and Dad moved in with me, I had no idea what to do. But day by day, I found ways to cope, and even enjoy having my Dad with me.

So I started writing a blog at http://www.KnowItAlz.com, which shows the “lighter” side of caring for someone with dementia.

After a while, I added over 100 pages of helpful information and tips for caregivers. We even have a Chat room so caregivers can communicate with each other from home. Art and music are a very large part of my Dad’s therapy.

Please pass this link along to anyone you feel would enjoy it.

Thanks!
Kathy Hatfield

I would find this article more intriguing if there was more information. How did the scientists test the mice like you mentioned before? Where was the experiment conducted? Other than than I would have to say that any progress in Alzheimer’s is a positive advancement in the field of science.

George picked an interesting topic considering that lack of sleep is something many college students can relate to. I’ve always thought that 8 hours were needed just to be able to function well the next day. I was not aware that not getting enough sleep could possibly have long term side effects. It will be interesting to see what developments come with further research into the topic considering that the link found is not 100% yet. We have not yet learned specifically about the brain but I am interested to see if we do learn about any topics that can be related back to this article.

I agree with you George. I believe that sleep is very beneficial to a person’s health, but I do not believe that lack of sleep will cause Alzheimer’s. You state that this study says that the brain makes certain proteins while a person is awake that creates plague on the brain and spine. It also says that the brain increases the production of these proteins when a person is awake at night. My question is how does the brain know when it is night or day? As far as I know the brain cannot differentiate between night and day. It just knows that it needs 8 hours of sleep a day. If the brain could tell the difference between night and day then getting used to living in a new time zone wouldn’t be difficult. Also, the time “nighttime” starts and the duration of night changes depending on daylight savings time. This would mean that the brain would need different amounts of sleep throughout the year. This would also mean that people who work night shifts would be more susceptible to Alzheimer’s. I feel evidence that the brain can differentiate between night and day needs to be presented in this article before they present their hypothesis.

I think that if lack of sleep were to cause alzheimers disease the study would have already been bought to our attention. Staying up late and not recieving the recommended hours of sleep is nothing new. I ultimatley hope this is not true because as a college student I stay up very late and usually have to wake up early for class.