Patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease may show disruptions in non-REM deep sleep, suggests a study in Science Translational Medicine. Researchers studied 119 U.S. older adults (average age 70) who were either cognitively typical or only slightly impaired. They used EEG to monitor participants’ brain activity during sleep over six nights, and used PET imaging and cerebrospinal fluid measures to determine the level of Alzheimer’s-related amyloid and tau proteins in the participants’ brains. On average, people with more of these proteins experienced shorter durations of non-REM sleep. The researchers suggest that sleep monitoring could provide an early biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. (Monitor on Psychology)

Susie Bean Gives