Sleeping long hours on a regular basis may be linked to higher levels of a protein tied to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from UT Health San Antonio.
The study looked at 2,410 participants and found a connection between sleep duration and phosphorylated, a protein now measurable in blood that is considered a key marker of Alzheimer’s disease.
Sleeping eight and a half to nine hours a night was linked to higher phosphorylated levels, with the increase becoming sharper for those sleeping more than 10 hours, researchers say this pattern may point to early neuro-degenerative changes.
Vanessa M. Young, a postdoctoral research fellow at UT Health San Antonio’s Biggs Institute, led the study, she said the findings can’t prove that long sleep causes Alzheimer’s, since the research captured a single point in time rather than tracking people over years. Still, she said the results suggest sleep habits are worth monitoring, and that more sleep isn’t necessarily better for brain health.
After adjusting for factors like age, sex, sleep apnea, depression, kidney function, and a genetic variant linked to Alzheimer’s risk, the connection between longer sleep and higher phosphorylated levels remained. Three other brain related proteins tested in the study lost their link to sleep once kidney function was factored in.
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Alzheimer’s affects a majority of the world’s 57 million dementia cases, and researchers say identifying modifiable risk factors remains a top priority. Sleep has long been considered a promising area of focus, though evidence has been limited.
Young said the finding could give people a useful reason to discuss their sleep habits with a doctor. Vanessa suggested that regularly sleeping nine to ten hours or more a night may be worth mentioning as a starting point for a broader conversation about sleep quality and brain health.
