SLEEP MORE IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN SHARP AT 60.
You will always have a thousand reasons to stay awake longer than you should; an unmet deadline, movie night, social media, but this new study by UC Berkeley researchers will give you a million reasons to sleep on time. Good sleep, especially at night, will aid you fight Alzheimer's disease, a kind of dementia that commonly affects elderly people. As a young person, you can prevent your brain from developing beta-amyloid plaques which show signs of Alzheimer's by observing quality sleep time ranging from 6 to 8 hours a day. Alzheimer's is a progressive brain disease, it does not just show up, it has a cycle during which it develops. This research shows that you can slow down the development of this brain disorder by sleeping well.
The study led by Matthew Walker and Joseph Winer, neuroscientists at the University of California-Berkeley, suggests that plenty of deep, restorative sleep, can serve as a defence to Alzheimer's disease. Recall that this disease is virulent in nature, and there is currently no cure for it. Since there is no cure, all you have are treatments that can manage the progression of the disease, or habits that can forestall its development. According to these researchers, the sleep you have now can be likened to a crystal ball that determines how quickly your brain will develop Alzheimer's pathology.
This means that your sleeping patterns can either protect you from Alzheimer's, or make you even more vulnerable to the disease. Essentially, you must work hard to give your brain time to wash itself during a deep sleep as a preventive measure. Young people are advised to grab this opportunity to equip themselves with quality sleep so that they can combat the likely growth of beta-amyloid plaques as they progress in age. The researchers performed an experiment using 32 older adults, and matched their overnight sleep quality to determine which adults were most likely to show signs of dementia.
After the experiment, it was discovered that those adults who had less non-rapid eye movement (NREM) were more susceptible to the growth and progression of beta-amyloid plaques. Obviously, genetic factors affect a person's susceptibility to Alzheimer's, but this finding proves that you can slow down the process by observing proper sleeping patterns. The scientists pointed out that a study of your sleep can estimate how soon you will get this kind of dementia. Sleeping deeply for at least six hours a day is definitely a small price to pay to preserve your cognitive health when you get older.
Therefore, set a standard time and dedicate it to good sleep. This study by two UC Berkeley researchers was published in a journal called Current Biology, and details about the experiment and findings can be found in it. While you are still young and strong, do yourself a favor, cultivate the habit of going to bed on time. With reference to this research, it is certain that such a habit will defend you from Alzheimer's disease, and preserve your cognitive abilities in your old age.
Your friend,
Chinweubam.
