UC Berkeley researchers have discovered a correlation between a poor night’s rest and deterioration in brain function, opening the possibility that an elderly person’s long-term memory can be improved through sleep.
In a report published Jan. 27 in the journal Nature Neurosciences, the researchers argued that poor sleep quality can inhibit an individual’s ability to store and recollect long-term memories.
“Now we know that if you can target or manipulate sleep, you can help change things,” said Bryce Mander, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at UC Berkeley and co-author of the report. “If you can enhance or improve deep sleep in elders, you (may be able to) improve (their) memory problems.”
During REM sleep, the average young person transfers short-term memories that are stored on one part of the brain to the area of the brain that stores long-term memories, Mander explained. Due to disturbed sleep, elderly people’s short-term memories often do not make this transition and are therefore lost.
During the study, 18 young adults and 15 elderly people were given memory tests before and after a full night’s sleep. To determine the participants’ sleep and memory quality, researchers’ monitored and recorded their brain activity.
The results revealed a clear link between a participant’s sleep and his or her brain deterioration, as elderly participants’ poor sleep quality was reflected in their reduced ability to recall memories.
The researchers found that the quality of the elderly participant’s REM sleep was 75 percent worse than that of younger participants, and the quality of their memory recall the next day was 55 percent worse.
A lot of elderly patients are up constantly throughout the night, said Glenn Roldan, vice president for clinical operations at N2 Sleep Clinic.
“This correlation between poor sleep and memory loss is something a lot of physicians know already,” Roldan said. “Patients with sleep apnea suffer oxygen loss, which results in memory loss and daily headaches.”
A significant proportion of the population is above the age of 65, which is why discovering methods of enhancing sleep for the elderly is important, Mander said.
“The number of people with dementia and cognitive disorders are going to continue to get worse,” he said. “We are paying significant money as taxpayers for it — if we can prevent it we should … especially because sleep is so important.”
Mander noted that there are other factors that contribute to sleep disturbances, including reasons that are physiological, biological and chemical, among others. However, nothing can be done to remedy these.
The researchers say they hope to continue conducting similar sleep-enhancing studies on elderly patients to see if better sleep improves long-term memory.
“We are not saying that sleep is the only factor that predicts memory decline, but we are saying that sleep is an additional factor that should not be ignored, especially because you can manipulate it,” Mander said. “The thing that we are really excited about it seeing if sleep is a contributing factor in memory diseases like Alzheimer’s or cognitive disorders, and does enhanced sleep help enhance memory.”
Mander noted that adequate sleep is essential for people all ages, not just the elderly.
“(Sleep) touches all parts of our lives,” he said. “I really believe is an important thing, and people need to prioritize it like they do diet and exercise from developing kids to older people.”
Contact Aliyah Mohammed at [email protected].