California: A new study has found that deep sleep can help older people avoid memory loss.
According to researchers at the University of California Berkeley, deep sleep can act as a ‘cognitive reserve factor’ to increase resistance to the main cause behind nervous disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type diagnosed with dementia. It damages memory pathways in the brain and can also interfere with people’s ability to perform daily tasks.
According to scientists, 11 out of every 100 people over the age of 65 suffer from this disease. This rate is also expected to increase with the age of people of the ‘Baby Boomers’ breed. The baby boomer generation includes people who were born between 1946 and 1964.
A protein called beta-amyloid is associated with memory impairment due to dementia, and previous studies have shown that sleep disturbances are related to the rapid accumulation of this molecule in the brain.
A decrease in the amount of deep sleep has also been linked to the expected cause of a potentially worse type of dementia in the future. But scientists have also identified activities that sharpen the human mind, such as years of education or contribution to social issues, can improve any person’s resistance to severe forms of the disease.
Since education or social networks cannot be easily altered, the researchers defined other types of activities to keep the brain active.
In a study recently published in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers found that in people who are at risk for dementia, excessive deep sleep may act as a protective agent against memory impairment and help avoid the dangerous consequences of dementia.
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