Frequently napping during the day may be a sign of fatigue or growing older, but a new study suggests it may also be a warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, out of UC San Francisco, found that sleeping too much during the day — especially if there are no sleeping problems at night — could be a sign that the beginning of Alzheimer’s may be impacting the part of the brain associated with staying awake.
The study found that tau protein tangles may be responsible for impacting these brain regions associated with wakefulness and contributing to degeneration, rather than amyloid protein, which was previously assumed.
“Our work showed definitive evidence that the brain areas promoting wakefulness degenerate due to accumulation of tau — not amyloid protein — from the very earliest stages of the disease,” Dr. Lea Grinberg, senior author of the study, said in a press release.
