Sleep disturbances can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease. Many people eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s start experiencing difficulty falling and staying asleep years before cognitive problems such as memory loss and confusion emerge. It’s a vicious cycle: Alzheimer’s disease involves changes to the brain that disrupt sleep, and poor sleep accelerates harmful changes to […]
When you live with dementia, your sleep breaks apart, the nights a strobe-lit blur, the grayed days lost to catnaps. Physicians — and families — have known this for years. But what no one realized, until landmark research at Washington University in 2009 set a series of studies in motion, was that fragmented sleep might […]
People with sleep apnea wake up tired in the morning, no matter how many hours they actually sleep. The condition causes them to briefly stop and restart breathing dozens or even hundreds of times a night. Even though such breathing interruptions often don’t awaken those with apnea, they prevent them from sinking into deep, refreshing […]
The TV sitcom grandpa character who always seems to fall asleep at unfortunate moments is so common it’s almost a cliché. But daytime napping and disjointed sleep at night aren’t normal parts of aging. Sleep disturbances can be an early sign of a neurodegenerative condition, and they may be treatable. Researchers at Washington University School […]
Like so many other good things in life, sleep is best in moderation. A multiyear study of older adults found that both short and long sleepers experienced greater cognitive decline than people who slept a moderate amount, even when the effects of early Alzheimer’s disease were taken into account. The study was led by researchers […]
At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting Oct. 2, several faculty members were appointed or promoted with tenure or granted tenure, effective that day unless otherwise indicated… …Promotion with tenure Luis F.Z. Batista to associate professor of medicine and of developmental biology at the School of Medicine (tenure effective Jan. 1); Nico […]
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting more than 5 million people in the U.S., but doctors have limited advice on how to protect against it. The disease develops silently in the brain for two decades or more before people begin showing the characteristic signs of forgetfulness and confusion. Understanding that silent […]
Among the many things that can shatter when Alzheimer’s disease tightens its grip is the steady rhythm of the body’s sleep-wake cycle. The problem is so common that one New York City nursing facility—the Hebrew Home at Riverdale—ran an all-night program for many years that took in afflicted community members for a dusk-to-dawn schedule of […]
Study in mice, people explains why poor sleep linked to Alzheimer’s From the WashU Newsroom… Poor sleep has long been linked with Alzheimer’s disease, but researchers have understood little about how sleep disruptions drive the disease. Now, studying mice and people, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that sleep […]
Toxic brain protein tau elevated in older people who sleep poorly From the WashU School of Medicine News… Poor sleep is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. People with the disease tend to wake up tired, and their nights become even less refreshing as memory loss and other symptoms worsen. But how and why restless nights […]
Study shows sleepless night taxes brain’s waste-disposal abilities From the WashU Newsroom… Have you resolved to take better care of yourself in the new year? Here’s a relatively painless way to do it: Catch a few more zzz’s every night. A third of American adults don’t get enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control […]