If you’re not sleeping deeply and peacefully in your 30s, then you are increasing your risk of cognitive decline midlife. That’s what a new study in the journal Neurology indicates, that the quality rather than the quantity of sleep matters. Researchers, who tracked their subjects for a decade, found that people with more disrupted sleep in their 30s and 40s could face a 100 per cent likelihood of memory and thinking problems a decade later.
According to Dr MV Padma Srivastava, Chairperson, Neurology, at Paras Health in Gurugram, “Sleep disorders over time can raise chances of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s.” Poor sleep leads to abnormal levels of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain, which in turn form amyloid plaques typical of Alzheimer’s. These plaques might then affect sleep-related brain regions, further disrupting sleep.
