Poor sleep might be the mechanism that triggers Alzheimer’s memory loss
Which means we may be able to use sleep to fight the condition.
FIONA MACDONALD 8 JUN 2015

New research suggests that poor sleep may be a crucial missing piece in the Alzheimer’s puzzle, and could lead to new treatments for the debilitating memory loss associated with the disease.

Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley in the US have found evidence that the protein believed to trigger Alzheimer’s disease, known as beta-amyloid, may also be involved in blocking deep, restorative sleep - the kind that we need each night in order to move our short-term memories over to a more permanent region of our brains.

Cancer, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, infections and obesity have all been linked to reduced sleep.
The body clock drives huge changes in the human body.
It alters alertness, mood, physical strength and even the risk of a heart attack in a daily rhythm.

Modern society means many people are now "living against" their body clocks with damaging consequences for health and wellbeing.

Dr Akhilesh Reddy, from the University of Cambridge, said the body clock influences every biological process in the human body and the health consequences of living against the clock were "pretty clear cut”.

Science believes that improving sleep can reduce the decline and shrinking of the brain.

There are those who believe that after a number of sleep depriving hours on a series they can rest and recover from whatever damage that experience visited on their body. “Don’t worry dear, I’m going to rest all week.” She may answer; “Good, I will introduce you to Freddy, tomorrow is his 13th birthday.”

World science and medical authorities speak of how “a corporatized world is supremely arrogant ignoring the importance of sleep.” New research shows a good nights rest is not a luxury – it’s critical for your brain and your health.

Not that we need more information to say the way we’re obliged to work is a senseless, deadly, long lasting human disaster.

The reason I write this about brain scans, is that it causes permanent, measurable harm not cured by time off or a charitable Producer ride to a nearby hotel. Brain scans of those subjected to our kind of sleep deprivation has shown a more rapid “decrease in the frontal temporal and parietal part of the brain.”

Next week there is a Western Regional Council Meeting where we had hoped to read the new contract. For some reason it won’t be there. However, Bruce last week mentioned proudly that the Producers will deal with fatigued workers if they wanted nearby hotels.

What I have presented above and the full meaning of the first line of the IA Long Hours Resolution - “There exists indisputable evidence from scientific, medical and empirical studies linking sleep deprivation and fatigue to critical safety and health hazards.” – goes beyond describing sleep deprivation as personal fatigue.

The last line of the unanimous Resolution says that our health and safety should be beyond compromise.

What we have learned about sleepiness is somewhat surprising. A very small amount of sleep debt or sleep loss can make a person dangerous.  

A study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that going just 17 to 19 hours without sleep produces blood levels over the limit of being legally drunk.

Drowsiness can be an alert but many studies and my personal experiences proves an individual will can’t make you escape a lights out fall to sleep. 

I remember going home on the 101 after a long shoot, really tired.  I rolled down the windows.  I played the radio full blast.  I even thought of Brent. The next thing I knew - lights out.  I heard the para-medics debate whether I was dead or alive.  Now I know, you can’t will yourself to stay awake. 

Studies show sleepy drivers cause at least 100,000 accidents a year.  And the number may be 3 to 4 times that.  No one really knows.

In the film “Who Needs Sleep”, the doctor showed testing that he was doing and said:

"We looked at patients who we deprived of sleep, over one week  two hours a night.  And we kept one group up just 24 hours.  And then we got one group drunk. And we compared the sleepy patients with the group that got drunk and they essentially had           the same performance. The sleepy people acted just like the drunk people on the driving course." 

This level of cognitive failure, not playing with all your marbles, may be boastfully celebrated and bragged about but it should be discouraged on the set, in the workplace, as well as being considered deadly on the road. 

If anyone wants to read a more definitive medical paper on this subject, please take the time to read this dissertation called “Sleep Deprivation: Impact On Cognitive Performance”