Long Sleeping Hours Could Be An Indication Of Alzheimer's Disease, Latest Study Says

A recent study reveals that sudden changes in the sleeping hours of elders could be an indication of early dementia. The study by Andrew J. Westwood of Columbia University Medical Center, Matthew P. Pase of Boston University School of Medicine and their team that published on Neurology suggest that prolonged sleeping of more than 9 hours could be taken as an analysis tool to diagnose dementia.

The team took the data of self-reported total hours of sleep to analyze the result. The median age of the group was 72 ± 6 years and 57 percent of the population were women. The team looked for the risk of dementia for 10 years and found as many as 234 cases of all-cause dementia from a sample of 2,457 people. The study showed that the prolonged sleep is associated with the potential risk of incident dementia.

Though the study did not reveal any clear connection of dementia to the sleeping pattern, the research team concluded that prolonged sleep duration could be a symptom of early neurodegeneration. The team also confirms that the sleeping pattern of the people could be used as a tool to identify people who are at increased risk of clinical dementia for the next 10 years.

The study further revealed that people who found sleeping more than nine hours recently are found to have 20 percent more risk of dementia than others. With the findings, the team of researchers suggested to use self-reported sleep timings of people can be used as a clinical tool. "Older people who reportedly having longer sleeping hours also found to be complaining about troubles in memory and thinking, so it needs to be analyzed and monitored in detail," Pase said.

A 2016 study showed that any sudden but long-term changes in the behavior, mood etc., can also be an indication of early dementia. Nina Silverberg of National Institute of Aging said that though Alzheimer's is a memory disorder, researchers have indicated that it could start as a change in behavior.