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Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

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Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#131
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried biphasic sleep? A cycle with one 2-7am sleep and a significant afternoon sleep (don't call it a nap-- at least 90 minutes) would get you enough sleep. It's easier to carve out that 90 minutes than it is to change all the things you need to change to shift your natural cycle.

Maybe I should give this a try. I've never been a nap person unless I got <5-6h of sleep the previous day, but seems worth a try.

A lot of biphasic sleepers claim to do one 4.5h session and one 1.5h session, and that it's like a hack on getting less sleep. You might be one of those. I need 8 in either mode.

Earplugs and a sleep mask are helpful if you're having trouble in the second phase.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melatonin is a hormone that can assist you with falling asleep, but it has no capability to keep you asleep or allow you to reach the 4 stages of deep sleep. Ambien is worse, in that it can make you feel like you are going to sleep, but you will not get into the deep states of sleep required for the brain to detoxify itself. The same is true for weed. Some folks use weed to help themselves sleep, but they are actuall…

I was under the impression that melatonin regulates your sleep wake cycle, and so you take it to do a reset, not to just get to sleep one night

When you consume it as a supplement, you are inducing what your body would normally produce anyway if you are in normal cycles and in the dark. The only difference is dosage. Your body produces very small amounts. Stores sell pills that range from 1mg to 10mg and sometimes even higher. Even 1mg is a lot. That is why they suggest you stop taking it for a couple weeks, every few months. One use of melatonin is to attempt to reset a sleep cycle if your cycles have been thrown off by travel or other circumstances. Other uses are unrelated to sleep and have interactions with the gut. Hormones are almost always multipurpose. Melatonin has no ability to keep you asleep however.

Resetting your sleep cycles can take a day, a few days or weeks depending on your age, health, hormone levels and environment.

In terms of wake cycle, your body will metabolize the melatonin and then later start producing more adrenaline. As people get older and if damage has occurred to their adrenal glands, or a myriad of other problems, then they may start producing adrenaline too soon and wake up early, feeling anxiety. This can also be a result of too much Cortisol (stress response hormone). These hormones are a complex topic all by themselves, even leaving out confounding factors.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#133
post #105

What does this mean for people with severe Delayed Phase Sleep Syndrome (DSPS)? I do not feel the need for sleep until usually about 2am, and I find it exceedingly difficult to wake up before 10am. And yes, it's made it extremely difficult to live a "normal" life like your typical person who can wake up at 7am without issue. It's been a problem with relationships, poor performance in school, issues in promotions and…

I wasn't diagnosed with this but I had the symptoms and the consequences you mentioned. It took a long time to fix. Here's some things I tried. Some may have helped or none may have helped. * I bought blackout blinds and use a sleeping mask (sometimes earplugs) * I bought a bright light ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FFJYMVS ) and a smart plug. 15 mins before I wanted to wake up I would have a timer turn on…

Have you tried melatonin? I had something similar to this and taking melatonin 1h before my desired bedtime has changed my life.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#134
post #105

What does this mean for people with severe Delayed Phase Sleep Syndrome (DSPS)? I do not feel the need for sleep until usually about 2am, and I find it exceedingly difficult to wake up before 10am. And yes, it's made it extremely difficult to live a "normal" life like your typical person who can wake up at 7am without issue. It's been a problem with relationships, poor performance in school, issues in promotions and…

I wasn't diagnosed with this but I had the symptoms and the consequences you mentioned. It took a long time to fix. Here's some things I tried. Some may have helped or none may have helped. * I bought blackout blinds and use a sleeping mask (sometimes earplugs) * I bought a bright light ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FFJYMVS ) and a smart plug. 15 mins before I wanted to wake up I would have a timer turn on…

You're probably right, but it's annoying we need to apply this perfect regime just to fall asleep.

Why can't we just be tired in the evening? I have friends who would fall asleep on the couch while watching a movie if it went past 11pm. Meanwhile I have to do some bullshit ww2 pilot exercise just to fall asleep at 1am.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#135
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a weird relationship with sleep. If I sleep LESS (5, 6 hours) I feel better. More energy, lighter on my feet, less depressed. That lack of sleep always catches up with me though, and after 4-5 days of that I'll have a day where I just feel EXHAUSTED and end up sleeping like 10 hours that night.

> and end up sleeping like 10 hours that night Paraphrased from the book - basically once you get passed the number of REM cycles needed all of the sleep after that is worthless and ends up just making you groggy. In other words the idea of "catching up on sleep" is BS.

My biggest criticism of the book is that it didn't address oversleep. Where did you find that bit of info?

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#136

You should take these findings with a big grain of salt. Remember we don't yet even have a causal model of Alzheimer's and dementia. Amyloid plaques are strongly associated with Alzheimer's but it's not clear if they're the actual cause or if they're just a residual indicator that something else has already gone wrong in the brain. As a counterpoint to the amyloid hypothesis, we also see amyloid build ups in patients…

This can be said for a ton of other bio indicators . Similar: does alcohol consumption increase risk of cancer by X percentage or do X percent of alcoholics engage in some cancer causing activity/practice.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#137

I'm curious if sleep aids, whether it's OTC like melatonin or Rx like trazodone and Ambien, can help this situation. Is it just the sleep that's beneficial or is it "natural" sleep (that term doesn't mean anything, but you get the point of it)? In other words, should people who have difficulty sleeping look to aids as a way of staving off dementia later in life.

All cause mortality is absurdly higher if you use drugs to sleep, including OTC stuff[0]. So, probably not. Almost certainly same story with other "meds" that dipshits pop like popcorn[1]. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4883191/ [1] https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/widely-used-class-drugs-l...

> All cause mortality is absurdly higher if you use drugs to sleep, including OTC stuff[0]. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4883191/

Your reference only studied people who took Z-drugs, benzodiazepines, or no medications, and says nothing about OTC sleep medications. There are no OTC Z-drugs or benzos on the market.

The paper also notes that only chronic use of Z-drugs and benzos were associated with increases in mortality, and not intermittent use of Z-drugs. Even then, they issue a disclaimer about drawing such conclusions:

> In short, while no relation with mortality for intermittent users of Z-drugs was found, the current study showed that use of benzodiazepines and chronic usage of Z-drugs both were associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality. Most of the effect estimates were reduced, but remained significant, after adjusting for confounding factors (except for Z-drugs). However, the low numbers of individuals reporting chronic usage indicate that the data should be interpreted cautiously.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#138

I'm curious if sleep aids, whether it's OTC like melatonin or Rx like trazodone and Ambien, can help this situation. Is it just the sleep that's beneficial or is it "natural" sleep (that term doesn't mean anything, but you get the point of it)? In other words, should people who have difficulty sleeping look to aids as a way of staving off dementia later in life.

Melatonin is a hormone that can assist you with falling asleep, but it has no capability to keep you asleep or allow you to reach the 4 stages of deep sleep. Ambien is worse, in that it can make you feel like you are going to sleep, but you will not get into the deep states of sleep required for the brain to detoxify itself. The same is true for weed. Some folks use weed to help themselves sleep, but they are actuall…

Thc is found to increase deep sleep and reduce rem, which isn't ideal but significantly better than RX drugs like ambien and benzos.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a great book for emphasizing the importance of sleep. The author's desired outcome is to get people interested in healthy sleep habits, and he hits a home run in that regard. However, take some of the science positions in the book with a grain of salt. The author is notorious for being directionally correct in his opinions, but exaggerating a lot of the science for dramatic effect. This doesn't matter at all if…

I have a weird relationship with sleep. If I sleep LESS (5, 6 hours) I feel better. More energy, lighter on my feet, less depressed. That lack of sleep always catches up with me though, and after 4-5 days of that I'll have a day where I just feel EXHAUSTED and end up sleeping like 10 hours that night.

If I may ask, how old are you? As I age I find that I can handle a little less sleep, but my ability to handle swings in amounts of sleep is way less; even if I can get by with :30 less per night than 5 years ago, 1:00 less on one night affects me WAY more than it did 5 years ago.

I'm in my 50's, FWIW.

Re: Biomarker of Alzheimer's found to be regulated by sleep cycles

#140

I'm curious if sleep aids, whether it's OTC like melatonin or Rx like trazodone and Ambien, can help this situation. Is it just the sleep that's beneficial or is it "natural" sleep (that term doesn't mean anything, but you get the point of it)? In other words, should people who have difficulty sleeping look to aids as a way of staving off dementia later in life.

if you're interested on learning more about it, read Why We Sleep. It talks about sleep aids and the importance of quality sleep
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