March 28, 2013

What Your Sleep Style Says About You

By Logan Lafferty

If you spend some nights chopping, kicking, and shouting in your sleep (Hi-yah! included), you may be at greater risk for one form of dementia, finds new research from the Mayo Clinic…Lewy body dementia appears to start in the brainstem and slowly make its way up to the cerebral cortex—a process that can take decades, explains Bradley Boeve, MD, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Boeve says the brain circuitry that controls REM sleep is in the lower brainstem, which may explain why his research found future dementia sufferers start kicking and screaming in bed 30 years or more before cognitive decline begins.

 

Prevention by Markham Heid

Tags: brainstem, cerebral cortex, cognitive decline, dementia, Dr. Bradley Boeve, Lewy Body Dementia, Neurology, Prevention, REM sleep, Research, Sleep Medicine, sleep style

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