CNN’s on it:
A preliminary study found the loss of one night’s sleep in healthy young men increased the levels of tau protein in their blood compared to getting a complete night of uninterrupted sleep.
Studies have shown that higher levels of tau protein in the blood is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. “Our exploratory study shows that even in young, healthy individuals, missing one night of sleep increases the level of tau in blood suggesting that over time, such sleep deprivation could possibly have detrimental effects,” said study author Dr. Jonathan Cedernaes, a neurologist at Uppsala University in Sweden. The study was published Wednesday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
From the linked paper:
Methods In a 2-condition crossover study, 15 healthy young men participated in 2 standardized sedentary in-laboratory conditions in randomized order: normal sleep vs overnight sleep loss. Plasma levels of total tau (t-tau), Aβ40, Aβ42, neurofilament light chain (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were assessed using ultrasensitive single molecule array assays or ELISAs, in the fasted state in the evening prior to, and in the morning after, each intervention.
Results In response to sleep loss (+17.2%), compared with normal sleep (+1.8%), the evening to morning ratio was increased for t-tau (p = 0.035). No changes between the sleep conditions were seen for levels of Aβ40, Aβ42, NfL, or GFAP (all p > 0.10). The AD risk genotype rs4420638 did not significantly interact with sleep loss–related diurnal changes in plasma levels of Aβ40 or Aβ42 (p > 0.10). . . .
Hey, didn’t somebody say something about the difference between significant and non-significant?
Anyway, this all could be a real thing. The headline is just a bit dramatic.