Poor Sleep Quality in Older Adults Linked to Increased Risk of Hardened Brain Arteries

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Older people who sleep poorly may have a slightly increased risk of having hardened blood vessels in the brain, and oxygen-starved brain tissue, according to a new study.

In the new study, the researchers looked at the brains of 315 people who underwent autopsies after they died. The people were 90 years old, on average, when they died, and 70 percent were women. At some point before they died, the people in the study had had their daily activity and sleep monitored for at least one full week. Based on the data from the monitoring, the researchers assessed the quality of the people’s sleep.

Of all the people whose brains were examined, 29 percent had had a stroke and 61 percent showed damage in their blood vessels in the brain, which ranged from moderate to severe.

The researchers found that the people whose sleep was often interrupted were 27 percent more likely to have hardened arteries in the brain than people who slept without interruption.

The people whose sleep was often interrupted were also 31 percent more likely to have damage to brain tissue due to lack of oxygen, compared with those who slept without interruption.

The study found an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship, between poor sleep and brain problems. It’s possible that interrupted sleep could be either a cause or a consequence of the hardening of blood vessels in the brain and damage to brain tissue, or that some other unknown underlying factor contributed to both sleep problems and the damage in the brains, the researchers said.

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Original Source:http://www.livescience.com/53386-poor-sleep-tied-to-hardened-brain-arteries.html

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