Sleep disruptions may be among the earliest indicators of Alzheimer’s. This means that early detection as well as treatment to arrest the disease could be possible. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine published their findings in Science Translational Medicine.
A release from the university quotes senior author David M. Holtzman MD as saying, “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. 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 . . . If these sleep problems exist, we don’t yet know exactly what form they take — reduced sleep overall or trouble staying asleep or something else entirely. But we’re working to find out.”
