The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep

by Guy Leschziner

From the perspective of the general population, one of the most worrying, but also potentially exciting associations, is that of Alzheimer’s disease. While sleep apnoea appears to cause significant deterioration in various aspects of cognition, like attention, vigilance, long-term verbal and visual memory, reasoning and problem-solving, it may also have a direct role in the development of dementia. Sleep apnoea appears to hasten the development of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s, and treatment of sleep apnoea in Alzheimer’s causes an improvement in cognitive function. In the elderly, build-up of the protein beta-amyloid has been associated with sleep apnoea. This protein is deposited in the brain, forming plaques that cause signalling problems between neurones, triggering inflammation within the brain, and are one of the microscopic signatures of Alzheimer’s disease. And recently, an explanation for this association between sleep apnoea and dementia may have been forthcoming.