A sleeping pill has shown potential in terms of lowering the possibilities of developing Alzheimer’s disease. But there’s not enough reason to start out taking that pill yet.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently presented their findings from their study on the sleeping pill suvorexant – a member of the insomnia drug class called dual orexin receptor antagonists.

The insomnia medication works by blocking orexin, a natural biomolecule that promotes wakefulness. When orexin is inhibited, it is simple for people to go to sleep, the researchers noted in a press release.

Sleep disturbances have long been considered an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease as people diagnosed with the condition struggle to fall and stay asleep years before the cognitive issues emerge. Poor sleep cycle appears to speed up the harmful changes to the brain.

To interrupt the cycle and to search for a option to lower the chance of Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers examined how the insomnia drug affected the brains of those that took it before hitting the sack.

For the study, the research team monitored 38 middle-aged participants for 2 nights in a sleep lab and checked the changes of their brains in response to the sleeping pill.

The participants were divided into groups and given no dose, a lower dose and the next dose at 9 p.m. before sleeping. While asleep, the researchers took samples of their brains and spinal fluid every two hours.

The team found that those that received the next dose of suvorexant got a superb night’s sleep. Additionally they recorded 10-20% lower levels of beta-amyloid and 10-15% lower levels of phosphorylated tau protein than those that didn’t receive the drug.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by the buildup of beta-amyloid and tau proteins. Based on the researchers, their findings seemed encouraging because they showed the potential of an enormous difference in stopping the buildup of such waste proteins in the long term.

“If we are able to lower amyloid day-after-day, we predict the buildup of amyloid plaques within the brain will decrease over time,” first writer Brendan Lucey, the director of Washington University’s Sleep Medicine Center, said within the press release.

“This drug is already available and proven secure, and now we’ve evidence that it affects the degrees of proteins which are critical for driving Alzheimer’s disease,” he added.

Nonetheless, what they did was only a small, proof-of-concept study. More research is required to determine the findings and prove that the sleeping pill could really lower the chance of Alzheimer’s.

“This can be a small, proof-of-concept study. It could be premature for people who find themselves apprehensive about developing Alzheimer’s to interpret it as a reason to start out taking suvorexant every night,” Lucey noted.

The study findings are published within the Annals of Neurology.

Alzheimer’s disease rates are expected to grow in the long run because the population ages.
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay