Dementia risk from sleep patterns

Researchers offer many solutions to prevent development of dementia, including exercise, healthy diet and blood pressure management. What if we told you there’s another element to your daily routine that requires no additional effort to implement? Studies have found a strong link between sleep and future dementia risk, so it’s really worth paying attention to it and ensuring you’re getting the appropriate amount of rest every night.

The power of sleep

Sleep is one of the best anti-aging ‘treatments’ for your brain. It allows your brain to retain memories and enhances your abilities to learn and memorise new skills. There is no surprise that it’s an important component of lifestyle and dementia risk, and it’s important to get correct amounts of quality sleep now to help your brain perform its best in the later stages of life.

Poor sleep and dementia risk

While getting plenty of sleep is important, make sure to stick to the appropriate amount for your age. Sleeping too much could have the reverse effect and actually worsen your memory. Experts recommend seven to nine hours for people aged 26 to 64 and seven to eight hours for individuals over 65. To reduce your risk of dementia through healthful sleep patterns, ensure there are no disruptions. Seemingly insignificant disturbances like ambient noises, bright lights, your partner’s differing sleep patterns or snoring can have an impact on the wellbeing of your brain. You can use a sleep tracker to check if you’re waking up at night and address any disruptions appropriately. Some easy tips include using blackout curtains and using a white noise machine to ensure you don’t wake up throughout the night.

Not all sleep is created equal

When exploring the link between sleep and future dementia risk, researchers found that, in particular, lack of REM sleep could be the main culprit of increasing your risk factor. There are 5 stages to your sleep, occurring in 90 minute cycles, with REM being the final one, during which you’re most likely to dream. By monitoring sleep patterns of 321 participants, it was discovered that people who went on to develop dementia later in life spent 17% of their sleep in REM, compared to people who didn’t develop dementia and spent 20% of their sleep in REM state. Subjects who developed dementia also had longer intervals between periods of REM sleep.

What your sleep tells you about your cognitive health

Though sleep disturbances can impact your cognitive health in the long term, they can also be tell-tale signs of dementia. If you suffer from insomnia, notice an increase of waking up during the night or any other changes to your sleeping habits, reach out to your doctor. They will be able to identify whether you may have early symptoms of cognitive decline and offer solutions on how to manage it. 

Take a look at or knowledge base for more information on dementia care and other dementia related articles here.