A new study from UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of UT San Antonio, has found that regularly sleeping long hours each night is associated with higher levels of an Alzheimer’s-related protein in the blood.
The researchers reported that regular sleep durations beginning at 8.5 hours to 9 hours per night were associated with higher phosphorylated tau181 levels, a modified form of tau protein. The p-tau181 levels increased among people sleeping beyond 10 hours, which suggests that longer sleep durations may reflect early neurodegenerative processes.
“A lot of people worry about whether their sleep habits are affecting their brain health,” said Vanessa M. Young, PhD, MS, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. “Because this is a snapshot in time rather than a long-term study, we cannot say that long sleep causes Alzheimer’s, but the findings suggest it may be worth monitoring, and that more sleep is not always better for brain health.”
Visit the UT Health San Antonio Newsroom to learn more about this important Alzheimer’s discovery.
