Trouble falling asleep at bedtime or in the middle of the night? It could impact your risk for developing dementia
Adding to the growing body of evidence on sleep disturbances and cognitive impairment, new research finds significant links between three measures of sleep disturbance and the risk for developing dementia over a 10-year period.
The results, reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, associate sleep-initiation insomnia (trouble falling asleep within 30 minutes) and sleep medication use with higher risk for developing dementia. The investigators also found that people who reported having sleep-maintenance insomnia (trouble falling back to sleep after waking) were less likely to develop dementia over the course of the study.
This research is one of the first to examine how long-term sleep disturbance measures are associated with dementia risk using a nationally representative US older adult sample. Previous research has associated REM sleep behavior, sleep deprivation (less than five hours of sleep), and the use of short-acting benzodiazepines with cognitive decline. Their results for sleep-maintenance insomnia support other recent studies using smaller, separate data samples.
This study used 10 annual waves (2011−2020) of prospective data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a longitudinal panel study that surveys a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older within the USA. This study included only people who were dementia-free at baseline in 2011.
While the mechanism for decreased dementia risk among those with sleep-maintenance insomnia is still unknown, the investigators theorize that greater engagement in activities that preserve or increase cognitive reserve may thereby decrease dementia risk.
Recent evidence indicates there is a higher prevalence of sleep disturbances among older adults than among other age groups. This could be attributed to a variety of factors including anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic or warmer nights as a consequence of climate change.
