Study shows what one night of bad sleep could do to your brain
The answers may shock you
© iStock
HEALTH Alzheimer's
When it comes to Americans' sleeping habits, it is no secret that a full eight hours of rest is rare (if not impossible) to fit in with daily schedules. However this shocking study showed what just one single bad night of sleep could do to your brain—let alone a lifetime of it.
Researchers from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Yale University, and Piramal Pharma found that one night of sleep deprivation can cause an increase in an Alzheimer's-associated peptide called amyloid beta (also called beta-amyloid). This protein can accumulate into plaques that make it harder for brain cells to communicate. As a result brain cells eventually die off, which could be a substantial factor in Alzheimer's disease.
The study was conducted on 20 healthy people between the ages of 22 and 72. "In summary, our findings show adverse effects of one-night sleep deprivation on brain ABB [amyloid beta burden] and expand on prior findings of higher Aβ [amyloid beta] accumulation with chronic less sleep," the study writes.
The findings, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the first to show data about sleep deprivation and amyloid beta in humans, according to the Alzheimer's Association.