Sleep Problems May Be Early Sign of Alzheimer’s Disease

Sleep disruptions may be one of the earliest indicators of Alzheimer’s disease, say scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, according to a report in the Sept. 5, 2012, edition of Science Translational Medicine. Working in a mouse model, the researchers discovered that when the first signs of Alzheimer’s plaques appear in the brain, the normal sleep-wake cycle is significantly disrupted.

“If sleep abnormalities begin this early in the course of human Alzheimer’s disease, those changes could provide us with an easily detectable sign of pathology,” says senior author David M. Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of Washington University’s Department of Neurology. “As we start to treat Alzheimer’s patients before the onset of dementia, the presence or absence of sleep problems may be a rapid indicator of whether the new treatments are succeeding.” For more information, click here to read the full release.