People who frequently have nightmares, sleepwalking or other sleep disorders not caused by underlying medical conditions are twice as likely to develop vascular dementia as people who sleep normally - Photo: AI
The study was conducted by scientists at Cardiff University (UK). They used medical data from more than 1 million people in the UK and Finland, extracted from three large biological databases, to clarify the link between sleep quality and the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia.
Unlike sleep disorders that have organic causes such as sleep apnea, "non-organic sleep disorders" are phenomena such as chronic nightmares, sleepwalking, night terrors, insomnia, and hypersomnia.
Research shows that people with these disorders are 2.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with vascular dementia than those without the disorder, have a 67% increased risk of dementia overall, and a 68% increased risk of Parkinson's disease.
The most striking finding of the study was that the risk of neurological diseases increased even in people with low genetic risk factors. That is, people who do not carry genes linked to Alzheimer's or Parkinson's are still at increased risk if they have serious sleep problems.
"It appears that sleep disorders almost 'compensate' for the low genetic risk. This suggests that sleep problems may be an independent risk factor, independent of genes," said study co-author Hampton Leonard of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Analyzing the biological data allowed scientists to trace back in time, comparing the onset of sleep disorders with the diagnosis of neurological diseases many years later. They found that sleep symptoms often appeared 10-15 years before the patients had obvious neurological symptoms.
“We can pinpoint exactly when people were diagnosed with a sleep disorder and when they developed neurological disease, rather than just relying on later reports,” said Dr Emily Simmonds, a bioinformatics expert at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) at Cardiff University.
Identifying people at high risk early is key to preventing the disease. “If we can identify people who are at risk for dementia 10 to 15 years in advance, there is more time to implement interventions that can delay or prevent the disease from progressing,” says Kristin Levine of the NIH.
Scientists expect this study to spur further work into the biological mechanisms between sleep and neurodegeneration, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of sleep-enhancing therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy, pharmacological interventions, or sleep-aid technologies in preventing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-thuong-gap-ac-mong-co-nguy-co-cao-bi-mat-tri-nho-20250530133158422.htm
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