Sleep deprivation and disturbance in the elderly could exacerbate the impairment of aging of cells, new findings imply.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that stress caused by inadequate sleep adds to the already impaired response to protein misfolding in the brains of older mice.
Commenting on the animal study, lead author Dr Nirinjini Naidoo, assistant professor in the Division of Sleep Medicine, said: "Protein misfolding and aggregation is associated with many diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
"We could speculate that sleep disturbance in older humans places an additional burden on an already-stressed protein folding and degradation system."
The report states that further investigation into the topic will examine whether augmenting key protective proteins can delay the effects of aging and reduce periods of sleep disturbance in older patients.
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and published in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
