Why a good night’s sleep is your best defence against dementia

ALL this week, a pair of Alzheimer’s researchers have been sharing their expertise with Mail readers and revealing how simple lifestyle tweaks can help fend off the disease. Today, they tell you why sleep is so important, and what you can do to make sure

WOULDN’T it be incredible to look into your future and imagine never forgetting a name, losing your keys, repeating yourself or ever having to rely on loved ones to take care of you?

Imagine being able to continue doing all the things you love well into your 70s, 80s and beyond without worrying about your mind.

Dementia has become a modern plague, a leading cause of death in Ireland, and a devastating condition that now blights almost every family.

Our simple lifestyle plan provides the answer. Working as a husband-and-wife team at our clinic in the US, we have dedicated our careers as neurologists to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Our years of studies and experience with Alzheimer’s patients have now proven that the solution lies not (yet) with some kind of silver bullet pharmacological cure, but something far more simple, inexpensive, and easily within everyone’s grasp.

We have seen hundreds of patients use our simple plan of lifestyle changes to reverse what seemed to be an imminent Alzheimer’s diagnosis, and our findings have formed the basis of our life-changing new book, The Alzheimer’s Solution, which is being serialised this week in the Daily Mail.

At the heart of our message is the fact that brain health is influenced by five main lifestyle factors: nutrition, exercise, managing stress, restorative sleep and brain training.

Sleep is key. In fact, our clinical experience has shown us again and again that good quality sleep, night after night, is critical to cognitive function and quality of life as you get older. Forget your trendy juice cleanses or detox plans; seven to eight hours of good solid sleep each night will do more to remove toxins (as well as negative thoughts and memories) than any other regime or drug.

Sleep was designed especially for the brain. This is when it drifts into a different state designed to consolidate memory and thought. Short-term memories are converted to long-term, unneeded memories are eliminated, thought processes are organised and new brain connections are built.

This is when the brain undergoes its routine repairs, and the regeneration of neurons and their supporting cells can occur. The cocktail of chemicals released during sleep calm inflammation and bolster immunity — better sleep leads to fewer colds and immune-related disorders, and even a lower risk of cancer.

If you are keen to protect your mental and physical health into old age, and dramatically reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s, you would be well advised to take steps to improve the quality of your sleep.

Studies show that poor sleep, over time, leads to brain atrophy and shrinkage. It causes the brain’s specialised waste clearance cells to turn on themselves, pruning the very cells they should be trying to preserve, destroying healthy neurons and their connections.

The ‘brain fog’ you might get after a really bad night’s sleep is the same in early Alzheimer’s. Lack of sleep impairs your ability to function during the day, slowing your focus, your processing speed and your shortterm memory.

AS EVERYONE who has tried to function properly after a sleepless night knows, lack of sleep can blunt our responses, making us more likely to drop things and struggle with intricate or even simple actions.

In the elderly, a slight drop in sleep quality can be enough to negatively affect hand-eye co-ordination, increasing the risk of both car accidents and falls.

Sleeplessness appears to inhibit the ‘frontal lobe’ area of the brain causing the sleep deprived to make poor decisions. It certainly leaves you vulnerable to cravings which can lead to over-eating and weight gain.

Being short on sleep leads to a greater desire for high-fat foods and sweets, and triggers the release of appetite-stimulating hormones (leptin and ghrelin) which contrive to make dieting impossible. There is also a direct link between poor sleep and your body’s ability to process insulin.

These combined factors explain how people who don’t sleep enough are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, which has been repeatedly linked to dementia and cognitive decline.

Despite all its known benefits, insufficient sleep has become a major public health concern as many of us are failing to get

enough proper rest. The Sleep Council estimates that a third of Britons are getting only five to six hours of sleep a night, and 7 per cent of Britons sleep less than five hours a night.

MAKE SURE YOU WAKE UP REFRESHED

IT’S NOT the number of hours you spend snoring, the time you slope off to bed, or how many times you hit the snooze button on your morning alarm that count — when it comes to brain health, it’s the quality of your sleep that is really important.

We strongly recommend you think of six hours of really good quality sleep as your absolute minimum.

Most people need at least seven hours per night. More isn’t necessarily better — studies show people who regularly sleep for nine hours per night usually perform just as badly as those who sleep for less than six hours.

Margaret Thatcher famously claimed that she slept only four hours a night, but in her 70s she developed dementia.

We don’t know if the two were connected in her case or not, and clearly, some people can manage on far less sleep than others. But be warned — chronic lack of sleep, irrespective of how you feel and function during the day, can still inflict considerable cognitive damage over time.

The best sign that you are getting enough sleep is if you wake up every morning feeling refreshed. But if you have got into the habit of skimping on sleep and using caffeine to mask your exhaustion, you could be increasing your risk of Alzheimer’s.

The best way to remedy the situation is to draw up a personalised sleep plan which takes into account your circumstances and requirements. Work through these pages in conjunction with the free magazine we gave away in last week’s Irish Mail on Sunday, which forms an important part of this process (if you missed it, you can get a copy by calling 01-6375800).

First, make an honest evaluation of how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Do you feel refreshed, or do you immediately rush for a cup of coffee or tea? And do you have energy to keep you ticking along throughout the day, or do you often feel exhausted by mid-afternoon or early evening?

Now consider which of the following steps you can take to optimise your sleep and protect your brain.

TIPS TO HELP YOU GET A GOOD NIGHT’S REST

SIMPLE sleep hygiene techniques really can transform your sleep, so you should aim to try as many as possible from this list:

1. REGULATE YOUR SLEEP SCHEDULE: Go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning (including weekends). Keeping regular hours helps your brain know when to rest and when to be alert. 2. AVOID EATING LATE AT NIGHT: When your digestive system is working to digest food, you won’t sleep as deeply and you will be more likely to wake up. We stop eating three hours before bedtime (this has eased the digestive problems that kept Dean awake). 3. AVOID COFFEE AND ALCOHOL TOO

CLOSE TO BEDTIME: Caffeine can stay in your body for more than eight hours so avoid after 2 pm (this change in our lives has really helped Ayesha’s sleep).

One or two glasses of wine can be relaxing, but any more will disrupt sleep cycles and could cause you to wake up in the middle of the night to use the toilet. Avoid citrus juices in the evening too as these can cause heartburn and irritate the bladder.

4. EXERCISE: Try this outdoors in the morning, and avoid exercising before sleep.

Getting out into the light for a brisk morning walk will help set your circadian cycles and wake you up for the day, and exercise has been shown in many studies to increase the depth of sleep.

Walking after dinner (ideally at dusk) is also a good option because it helps your brain react to the changing light and naturally prepare for sleep.

But do no exercise — especially intensive aerobic exercise — less than three hours before bedtime. It can rev you up and make dropping off to sleep difficult. 5. LIGHT TRICKS: Your brain needs bright, natural light during the day, and softer light at night. A light box can be helpful, but use it only in the morning and have gentler, more soothing lights in your bedroom at night

And make sure that you turn off all electronic devices in the bedroom 6. IT’S VITAL TO WIND DOWN: avoid playing games, watching films and working on your laptop or phone in bed. It should be a placed to calm the brain, not rev. Try reading it up instead to allow the mind to relax. It's best to reserve the bedroom for

sleep and sex. 7. AVOID NAPPING: For most people, even a short daytime nap will interfere with your ability to fall asleep at night.

8. KEEP NOISE AND SOUND OUT: Sound and light-proof your bedroom. Both can wake you up and disrupt your sleep cycles, robbing you of the deep sleep your brain requires.

AVOID FOODS THAT DISRUPT SNOOZING

SUGARY foods give your body quick energy that interferes with relaxation and sleep.

HIGH-FAT foods can cause indigestion and heartburn.

SPICY foods can irritate the stomach and also cause heartburn.

CHOCOLATE contains sugar and caffeine, both of which can negatively affect sleep. Adapted by LOUISE ATKINSON from The Alzheimer’s Solution: A Revolutionary Guide To How You Can Prevent And Reverse Memory Loss by Dr Dean Sherzai and Dr Ayesha Sherzai, published by Simon & Schuster.