Late-life Alzheimer’s pathology may be predicted with sleep history

Researchers have found that the sleep pattern of older men and women could predict the accumulation of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. The most well-known hallmark of AD is the accumulation of tau and β-amyloid within the brain. With AD being a public health crisis, it is a pressing need to develop biomarkers to diagnose or prevent the toxic buildup of proteins, which presents much earlier than symptoms. Findings from a new study in the Journal of Neuroscience have indicated that sleep patterns could predict this pathological protein accumulation. In young individuals, two types of hippocampal sleep waves...