This is just one study. And, a preliminary one. But…
A little background. I have often spent two or three days in a row working out the kinks in a design. Read that statement more correctly as 48 to 70 hours non-stop. No sleep.
And, I remember many of students telling me they pulled an all-nighter.
Now, this one study is going to make many of us reconsider those actions. (I am not sure it will stop me, but it will give me pause. Because if I am on a roll, I am not sure I can convince myself to stop, drop, and sleep.)
Drs. C Benedict, K Blennow, H Zetterberg, and J Cedernaes (all from Uppsala University, Sweden) just had their new research published in Neurology Journal, Effects of acute sleep loss on diurnal plasma dynamics of CNS health biomarkers in young men.
The gist of it? Just one night without sleep increases the level of beta-amyloid in the brains of young men. (You do remember that beta amyloid and tau deposits are the protein clumps associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, right?)
The 15 subjects involved in this study were all healthy young men (average age of 22). And, the plasma levels of total tau (t-tau), Aβ40, Aβ42, neurofilament light chain (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were determined as a baseline level, as well as after a good night’s sleep, and then when they were deprived of sleep.
That one night without sleep raised their tau levels by 1/6 (17.2%), as opposed to a 1.8% rise after the good night’s sleep. No other changes were noted in any of the other monitored parameters. Besides the facts that this was one small study and one relying ONLY on the male species, we have no clue what the tau levels in the blood mean- because the tau concentrations were not measured in the brain of the subjects.
As a matter of fact, this study could simply indicate that our brain is more effective at flushing out the tau protein, instead of accumulating it.
Obviously, more studies are needed. But…
I don’t think I have ever pulled an all-nighter though I have had many whole weeks of very short or bursts of sleeps (and that also definitely leads to something not too good for sure)
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I think the next set of studies will involve both 8 and much short durations of sleep, Vidya.
I can’t pull all-nighters anymore, it sets me back a few days. Since I can’t fall asleep until around 2am and up at 6ish, is that called a half-nighter?
That should be part of the follow-up studies, too, Martha.
Intriguing. But yes, needs more study. Don’t think this possibility would stop college students from pulling all nighters, though.
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If it turns out to be true- it might, Alana.