Daytime Sleepiness May Be Linked to Pre-Dementia Syndrome: Study Finds - Video

Older people who are sleepy during the day or lack enthusiasm for activities due to sleep issues may be more likely to develop a syndrome that can lead to dementia, according to a study published in the online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study found that people with excessive daytime sleepiness and a lack of enthusiasm to get things done were more likely to develop the syndrome than people without those sleep-related issues. The study does not prove that these sleep-related issues cause the syndrome, it only shows an association.

The study involved 445 people with an average age of 76 who did not have dementia. Participants took questionnaires for sleep at the start of the study. They were asked about memory issues and their walking speed was tested on a treadmill at the start of the study and then once a year for an average of three years.

The sleep assessment asked questions such as how often people had trouble sleeping because they wake up in the middle of the night, cannot fall asleep within 30 minutes, or feel too hot or cold and whether they take medicine to help them sleep. The question to assess excessive daytime sleepiness asks how often people have had trouble staying awake while driving, eating meals or engaging in social activity. The question on enthusiasm asks how much of a problem people have had keeping up enough enthusiasm to get things done.

A total of 177 people met the definition for poor sleepers and 268 met the definition for good sleepers. At the start of the study, 42 people had motoric cognitive risk syndrome. Another 36 people developed the syndrome during the study.

Of those with excessive daytime sleepiness and lack of enthusiasm, 35.5% developed the syndrome, compared to 6.7% of the people without those problems. Once researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect the risk of the syndrome, such as age, depression and other health conditions, they found that people with excessive daytime sleepiness and lack of enthusiasm were more than three times more likely to develop the syndrome than those who did not have those sleep-related problems. A limitation of the study is that participants reported their own sleep information, so they may not have remembered everything accurately.

Reference: https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/PressRelease/5211