
How you sleep today may forecast when Alzheimer's disease begins - ClarendonDrive
https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/09/03/how-we-sleep-today-may-forecast-when-alzheimers-disease-begins/
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adamredwoods
Sleep is important, but I am hesitant on these drawn conclusions.

Article: [https://www.cell.com/current-
biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)...](https://www.cell.com/current-
biology/fulltext/S0960-9822\(20\)31171-4)

Another paper, same authors:
[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/39/32/6315](https://www.jneurosci.org/content/39/32/6315)

UPDATE, quoted from paper: >> Importantly, the present results cannot
establish a causal link between impaired sleep and subsequent Aβ plaque
accumulation. The majority of subjects in the study already had substantial Aβ
deposition at baseline, so the directionality of this relationship cannot be
determined without further investigation.

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iainctduncan
Not normally a poster, but figured this might help peeps. In my 20's to early
30's I went through pretty bad insomnia. I tried treating it with substances
(atavan, etc.), and when I realized it was only getting worse (much worse)
from medication, I set about fixing it properly. I have been a great sleeper
now for about 15 years I think. Here's what worked for me. The trick is, you
need to do them _all_ and you need to do them consistently, so that your brain
gets used to it and you stop being anxious about it - because the anxiety
about sleep will make it worse.

The biggie: no brain work of the _problem solving_ variety less than 2-3 hours
before bed time. This was the #1 thing! No coding, no reading coding books, no
thinking about code. CODE IS THE WORST. It puts me in rumination mode, and you
can't stop. I can do music practice, exercise, read books (that don't make me
think about solving a problem), clean the house whatever. But I structure my
day so that no computer work happens for those critical hours.

Little to no screens for the same period. Read on paper. If you need screens,
redshift away all the blue light. NO social media at night. Getting worked up
over bullshit does _not_ help.

No caffeine less than 8 hours before bed. And much less caffeine over all. I
have 2-3 coffees over the day, but they are 4 ounces.

Little alcohol in general. Half a glass of wine with dinner, and I'm good.

Running! Get running. Seriously, it's good for _everything_. If you can't run,
find some similar cardio, but every athlete will tell you running is king.
There's a reason even chess champs and pistol shooters run tons.

Try to get regular on your times. I shoot for 8 to 9 hours a night, and bed
time is almost always between 10 and 11. I _never_ use a reader in bed. But I
will say that the above to me are more important than regular, in that I could
handle 2-3 hours of jet lag fine last year with regular travelling if the
others were all in order. I saved melatonin for travelling.

Over all though, I can't stress how much changing what kind of thinking and
work I allow myself in the last 3 hours of the day changed EVERYTHING. Bigger
than all the rest put together. Just structure your day so that you are
winding down your brain. We can't just turn off like a light switch.

I've been a sleep fanatic for my whole life, as I do a bunch of things that
are just a waste of time if overtired (practicing for playing music at a
professional level etc).

Hope that helps some folks. iain

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nefitty
This study was on people in their 60’s - 80’s, in case anyone else panicked
after reading the title. I am literally in the middle of dealing with some of
the worst sleep in my life, but am in my late 20’s. The idea that these
problems could eventually result in Alzheimer’s is terrifying to me because my
mind is literally who I am.

Just a few years ago all these problems seemed so far into the future that
they were irrelevant, but every day I’m realizing more and more that I’m on a
train barreling through time.

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ElFitz
This realization you mention is extremely odd and bizarre, yet so true.

Another thing I've come to understand is how many things I do today will, over
time and through cumulative effects, have long lasting, some irreversible,
effects on my body.

Obvious, yet surprising and strange when finally experienced and grasped.

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noir_lord
For me at 40 it's cursing 16yo me for putting that motorbike through that
fence and screwing me knee, 17yo me for lifting with a shoulder injury and
19yo me for playing football on wet astro-turf.

It's sorta funny how the bill for something something I did over 20 years ago
didn't come due until recently.

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exotree
I have been thinking about this a lot. I don’t really regret the random
injuries I got from younger me being dumb on a longboard and overdoing it with
weight lifting (my wrist, for instance, is going to get way worse over the
years because of a bad power clean). But I’ve settled on bodies are meant to
be used, not coddled.

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pedalpete
This is something that has been worrying me a bit since reading Matthew
Walker's book Why We Sleep.

I've been an insomniac my whole life, so I suspect something like this is
coming for me. This is why I'm building a sleep headband to monitor, adjust,
and train for better sleep performance. If you're interested, check out
[https://soundmind.co](https://soundmind.co)

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rwnspace
Oh, it's from Matthew Walker. He's a very creative scientist:
[https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/](https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/)

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rednerrus
My sleep is terrible. How do I improve it?

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shock
What is terrible about it?

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rednerrus
I wake up at 3 am consistently and can not go back to bed.

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kapv89
use melatonin

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bluejay2
My understanding (based in part on personal experience) is that melatonin
helps mostly with falling asleep, but not necessarily with staying asleep.

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tomcam
I’m 60 and fucked

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joejerryronnie
Yeah well I'm 45 and fucked.

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RobbieHacks
who else got a little nervous reading this? my sleep schedule is wack

