 [ Symptoms ] can losing sleep now affect the rest of my life [ Disease ] anyone who has a family member suffering from dementia or alzheimer is knows how difficult and heartbreaking these illnesses are and it is often anyone is guess as to what ultimately causes dementia in a given person what about sleep habits well it turns out that we may have clues now to a link between the development of dementia and a sleep disorder known as rapid eye movement rem sleep behavior disorder let is call it rbd for short the facts * with rbd the paralysis that normally occurs during rem sleep is incomplete or absent allowing you to “act out” your dreams translation you are not experiencing typical rem sleep that keeps you in a normal cycle of sleep * these dreams are often vivid and violent compelling you to talk punch kick scream and even jump out of bed translation you are not getting the restful sleep you need * rbd is usually seen in middle aged to elderly people and more often in men the researchers of this latest study found that 63 percent of people who experienced rbd developed dementia with lewy bodies or parkinson is disease in later life in some cases the disorder was detected up to 50 years before the neurodegenerative condition developed it is not too surprising that rbd is also linked to parkinson is as 30 to 60 percent of people with parkinson is disease develop dementia fyi lewy body dementia is a rare form of dementia whereby small round clumps of normal proteins called lewy bodies named after their discoverer become abnormally clumped together inside brain cells whether the lewy bodies directly cause gradual damage to the brain cells impairing their function and eventually killing them or are only a marker of some other destructive process is not known scary we have already seen that sleep loss causes brain loss and when you look at the risk factors for dementia — eating a healthy diet engaging in regular exercise — both of which have been shown to reduce the risk of developing dementia by up to 60 percent is there any surprise that getting a good night is sleep is just as important clearly we need more studies done to help us understand the associations between sleep habits and our risk for illness later in life we also need more information on associations that go beyond just rare sleep disorders like rbd the statistics are far too breathtaking * one in three people over 65 will die with dementia * twenty percent of us do not get enough sleep — banking less than 6 hours of sleep on average * heart disease diabetes and obesity have all been linked with chronic sleep loss so what can a lifelong battle with insomnia for example do to you in your golden years insomnia by the way is the most common sleep disorder affecting approximately 64 million americans regularly each year will a seemingly “harmless” struggle to get a good night is sleep