Sleep Deprivation May Lead to Alzheimer’s?

Neurologic diseases are one of the worst diseases and Alzheimer’s disease is one of them. It’s a progressive disease where there is loss of brain cells (neurons) which results in progressive memory loss. So far, there is nothing to reverse the process and our best plan of action is to try and limit the progression and prevent the disease.

This is just a start to try and understand the disease a bit better and hopefully someday to try and find a cure or a way to prevent the disease.

“The research was conducted in mice and is preliminary, and it may not apply to humans. Still, the possible link between sleep deprivation and Alzheimer’s raises the prospect of possible treatments that target related pathways in the brain, explained study author Dr. David M. Holtzman, chairman of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“This might be a way to delay or prevent the disease by doing something in middle life” rather than waiting until something goes wrong, Holtzman said.

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that as many as 5.3 million people in the United States have the disease, which is the country’s seventh-leading cause of death. Alzheimer’s disease is incurable, and although some treatments are available, they only relieve symptoms. In some cases, those symptoms include sleep problems.

Holtzman and his colleagues were not initially looking at sleep, but instead wanted to better understand how a protein clogs the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. It’s not clear how these clogs, known as plaques, and structures called “tangles” cause symptoms. But experts think it may have something to do with their disruption of how neurons communicate with each other.

The researchers developed a way to monitor the levels of the protein by the hour in both humans — through a continual measurement of their spinal fluid via a catheter — and mice.

The researchers discovered that the level of the protein went up during waking hours and fell during sleep. Holtzman said that its levels may be related to brain activity, which is higher during waking hours.

In mice, the researchers found that sleep deprivation boosted the levels of the protein, which builds up in plaques.

If a person is awake for a long time, levels of the protein might build up, Holtzman said. This could play a role in middle age because Alzheimer’s disease begins to clog the brain several years before symptoms become apparent.”

For the entire article, click here. It reminds me of something I was discussing with my mother recently. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said that for every disease Allah created there is a cure. All we need is the ability to discover that cure.

“There is no disease that Allah has created, except that He also has created its treatment.”(Al-Bukhari)

Beauty of the Brain & Sleep Paralysis

In my last post, I spoke of hypnopompic hallucinations and my experience with something known as sleep paralysis. I had to research my experience and have managed to come across some lovely explanations on the matter.

Taken from this webpage:

“Sleep paralysis is a condition in which someone, most often lying in a supine position, about to drop off to sleep, or just upon waking from sleep realizes that s/he is unable to move, or speak, or cry out. This may last a few seconds or several moments, occasionally longer. People frequently report feeling a “presence” that is often described as malevolent, threatening, or evil. An intense sense of dread and terror is very common. The presence is likely to be vaguely felt or sensed just out of sight but thought to be watching or monitoring, often with intense interest, sometimes standing by, or sitting on, the bed. On some occasions the presence may attack, strangling and exerting crushing pressure on the chest. People also report auditory, visual, proprioceptive, and tactile hallucinations, as well as floating sensations and out-of-body experiences (Hufford, 1982). These various sensory experiences have been referred to collectively as hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences (HHEs). People frequently try, unsuccessfully, to cry out. After seconds or minutes one feels suddenly released from the paralysis, but may be left with a lingering anxiety.”

And from an Islamtoday article:

“The source of this phenomenon is a natural bodily function. When you sleep, your brain shuts off the signals coming from your muscles so you do not get up and act out your dreams. This is to prevent you from injuring yourself in your sleep. For some reason, people with sleep paralysis come into consciousness before the brain returns voluntary control back to the muscles, creating a sense of feeling paralyzed. This sensation is quite uncomfortable and understandably frightening, which can lead the not wholly conscious person to experience some of the secondary symptoms of this disorder that can often be very frightening and realistic.”

Hypnopompic hallucination or jinns

Hypnopompic hallucination is a psychiatric term that refers to a hallucination that occurs while a person is waking up from sleep. In psychiatry, a hallucination can be in any sensory modality like an auditory hallucination (sounds), visual (lights, figures), or tactile (pressure, pain), etc.

So, why am I talking about this?

A few nights back I was asleep, I felt I heard a sound and then as though there was something sitting on me. As a reflex, I wanted to recite the ayat ul kursi but I was still asleep in reality and paralysed and couldn’t recite it. By the way, I talk in my sleep too so it would have been normal for me to recite surahs in my sleep. Then I tried to move and I couldn’t for maybe 10 secs and finally I was able to open my eyes and move and I started reading the ayatul kursi thrice, then the 3 quls thrice each before I finally felt better. I was wide awake and wondering if this was a dream or a jinn.

My friends and I used to love sharing jinn stories and I remember my friend saying that there are a certain type of jinn which sit on you and you can’t speak or move and these jinns are usually very powerful. Personally, I never researched this. I guess I should.

If you haven’t already figured out, the reason I mentioned hypnopompic hallucinations are because if I had relayed my experience to a psychiatrist, he/she would almost certainly tell me it was a hallucination as I was awakening. These kinds of hallucinations are not pathological and do not indicate any mental illness.

In psychiatry, we learn about and see patients with certain symptoms very similar to jinn possession. Sometimes, it’s hard for me to separate the two. Maybe because you learn with experience and I haven’t studied either in great detail.

Maybe what I had experienced was a hallucination or maybe, just maybe, it was a jinn playing around. *dum dum ddduuuummm* *x-files music*