Dementia is among the most problematic neurological conditions that might affect how people live. Patients with this brain disorder are likely to disrupt their social skills, decrease cognitive ability, and reduce their quality of life.
Despite the unavailability of a cure, many studies have already developed ways to prevent people from the risk of dementia. Some of these processes require complex technologies, while others need just simple adjustments for the prevention to work.
These prevention methods are constructed to identify risks that commonly lead to a broad range of dementia-related illnesses. In a new study, experts knew how a particular activity at night could significantly drive the human brain into developing dementia.
Lack of Sleep Leads to Dementia
According to the authors, the activity is so simple that many do not realize we are doing it already. This night routine is dangerous, mainly if a person's age is between 50 and 60 years.
The findings say that people in this age group who do not get enough sleep at night are likely to be diagnosed with dementia later. The probability is not minimal, as the average chance of a diagnosis of people who lack sleep during their 50s and 60s hits about 30 percent.
According to a study carried out by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), sleeping time is a critical factor that people could control to lessen cognitive issues presented by dementia.
The latest paper supports this analysis that associates nighttime rest with neurological disease. In the investigation, experts screened the dataset collected from approximately 8,000 individuals with no signs of dementia. Each of the pieces of information was recorded between 1985 to 2016.
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Among the categories, people were collected with the average amount of sleep they get every night. At the end of the examination, the group had a total of 521 participants who were diagnosed with dementia. This group had ages that averaged about 70 years, Best Life reports.
Out of the total number of participants, individuals in their 50s and 60s that reported six hours of sleep or less had an increased risk of dementia development later in their lives.
Sleep Disturbance
NIH experts said that compared to the normal sleepers (who had a sleep time of seven hours), the individuals who lack rest at night tend to be diagnosed with dementia by 30 percent more than the standard rates.
Sleep disturbance is among the most basic signs of early dementia. However, the abnormal sleep pattern is sometimes confused as either effects or factors of the brain condition.
Mayo Clinic specialists explain that many adults commonly face problems with their sleep, but people with dementia experience worse issues when retiring at night. Sleep disturbance could appear in mild to moderate dementia patients by 25 percent and in severe dementia patients by 50 percent.
Sleep disturbances could increase and get worse as the state of dementia in individual progress over time, the experts continued,
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications, titled "Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia."
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