A study was conducted by a team of researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, wherein it was found that sleeping issues may be the signs of Alzheimer's disease. It has been suspected by the team that there might possibly be a relation between sleeping and cognitive impairment.

According to previous studies conducted on animals, the signs of the beta-amyloid plaques that grow in the Alzheimer's patients’ brains tend to increase due to sleep disturbance. But, it has not been discovered till yet whether or not it happens in humans also.

The team had carried out the study on a cohort of 100 participants of ages 45 to 80 so as to find the link between sleeping problems and beta-amyloid markers in the brains. This is because Alzheimer’s disease has been found to occur long before it shows any symptoms. And, the signs are sometimes found even in cognitively normal people.

It has been found that participants were told to wear an actigraph for a maximum of 14 days, which was in order to measure their sleep in an objective fashion. Also, questionnaires and sleep diaries were to be filled by the participants so as to acquire subjective measures from them as well.

Additionally, the researchers also measured amyloid beta-42 levels in cerebrospinal fluid so as to find increased retention of Pittsburgh compound B during amyloid imaging. They told that the same was done by positron emission tomography. It was found by the team after the research that nearly 25% of people showed preclinical signs of Alzheimer's.

The team has claimed, “There is no cure or even strong support for any treatment that can reverse the development of amyloid plaques in humans once they form”. However, an early intervention might be helpful if the link is found in humans too, said Yo-El Ju and colleagues.