This sleep pattern speeds up dementia

A bad night’s sleep can leave you groggy in the morning.

But new research in Brain suggests repeated restless nights could do far more — quietly damaging brain blood vessels and speeding up memory loss and dementia.

Your brain’s blood vessels keep your mind sharp by delivering oxygen and nutrients and filtering what can enter or leave the brain.
Pericytes — special support cells wrapped around these vessels — act as gatekeepers.

Animal research hinted that poor sleep could harm these cells, but until now, proof in humans was lacking.

This new study was part of two large aging projects: the Religious Orders Study and the Rush Memory and Aging Project.
Over 1,000 older adults took part, with some wearing devices that tracked sleep interruptions, known as “sleep fragmentation.”

Participants also took annual memory and thinking tests for up to 10 years before their deaths.
Afterward, researchers studied their brain tissue, measuring two types of pericytes — M-pericytes and T-pericytes — in key brain regions.

Findings:

● More fragmented sleep meant higher M-pericyte levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (critical for thinking and decision-making).

● This increase was linked to faster cognitive decline in the decade before death.

● In the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (linked to judgment and social behavior), poor sleep was also tied to greater M-pericyte activity.

● These changes connected poor sleep directly to declining mental abilities—even after adjusting for other brain health factors.

The takeaway: frequent nighttime awakenings may trigger harmful changes in M-pericytes, injuring brain vessels and accelerating memory decline.

To protect your brain, focus on high-quality sleep: stay active during the day, keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet, and avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed.

But if your brain is already declining, sleeping is not enough.

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