Study Finds Sleeping Pill Can Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk: University of Washington Research

There has long been a connection between insufficient sleep and Alzheimer’s risk. Researchers have now investigated whether the sleeping pill itself has an effect on the build-up of proteins that increase the risk of the disease. And that turns out to be the case.

In the most recent study of the University of Washington researchers are looking at whether improving sleep with the help of sleeping pills can reduce the levels of beta tau and amyloid protein in the cerebral and spinal fluid. Previous research shows that even one night of disturbed sleep can increase beta amyloid levels.

A group of volunteers aged 45 to 65 were given the sleep drug suvorexant or a placebo one hour after researchers collected some of their cerebrospinal fluid. They then collected a sample every two hours for 36 hours while the participants slept and over the next day and night, to measure how the protein levels changed.

There were no differences in sleep between the groups, but beta amyloid levels were reduced by 10 to 20 percent with a dose of suvorexant, a drug commonly prescribed for insomnia. The higher dose of suvorexant also reduced levels of hyperphosphorylated tau, an altered form of the tau protein linked to tau tangle formation and cell death. That is also encouraging when it comes to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s.