Spending Too Much Time On Daytime Naps? It Could Be Sign Of Alzheimer's Disease

Do you spend too much time napping during the day? Findings of a new research suggest this could be an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers of the new study explained that the areas of the brain that keep you awake during the day are damaged in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, a neurological condition common among the elderly and is marked by problems with memory, thinking and behavior.

They said this could explain why people with Alzheimer’s disease may nap excessively long before they begin struggling with memory problems.

The researchers also found that the damage to the brain regions involved in daytime wakefulness is caused by a protein called tau, a hallmark of the memory-robbing disease, providing further evidence that tau plays a bigger role in the development of Alzheimer’s compared with the more extensively studied amyloid protein.

Studies that looked into the amyloid protein have so far failed in attempts to find effective Alzheimer’s treatment. The researchers said the new study adds to an increasing number of work that show tau is likely a direct driver of mental decline.

For the study, Lea Grinberg, an associate professor of neurology and pathology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Memory and Aging Center, and colleagues analyzed the brains of 13 dead Alzheimer’s patients and seven people without the disease.

They found that Alzheimer’s disease attacks the regions of the brain responsible for wakefulness during the day and these regions are among the first that the diseases damages.

“It's remarkable because it's not just a single brain nucleus that's degenerating, but the whole wakefulness-promoting network. Crucially, this means that the brain has no way to compensate because all of these functionally related cell types are being destroyed at the same time," Grinberg said.

Grinberg and colleagues also found significant tau buildup in all three wakefulness-promoting centers and these regions have lost up to 75 percent of their neurons in people with Alzheimer’s.

"Wake-promoting neurons (WPNs) are extremely vulnerable to AD but not to 4 repeat tauopathies,” the researchers wrote about their findings.

“Considering that WPNs are involved early in Alzheimer's disease (AD), such degeneration should be included in the models explaining sleep-wake disturbances in AD and considered when designing a clinical intervention.”

The study was published in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia on Aug. 12.