Do Sleep Medications Increase Dementia Risk? | Dr. Yue Leng, UCSF

Описание: Older adults often turn to prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids — but what do we really know about their long-term effects on brain health? A large, long-running UCSF study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, examined the association between sleep medication use and risk of dementia in older adults. Researchers found that frequent use of sleep medications was linked to a higher likelihood of developing dementia among white participants, while the same pattern was not seen among Black participants.

Dr. Yue Leng, PhD, an epidemiologist at UC San Francisco whose work explores how sleep, circadian rhythms, and napping relate to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline in older adults, was one of the researchers on the study.

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Being Patient is an editorially independent journalism outlet for news and reporting about brain health, cognitive science, and neurodegenerative diseases. In our Live Talk series on Facebook, former Wall Street Journal Editor and founder of Being Patient, Deborah Kan, interviews brain health experts and people living with dementia.

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1:55 Epidemiological studies: association vs causation
2:57 Study design: 3,000+ adults, 15-year follow-up, sleep meds + frequency
8:29 Deep sleep vs REM: brain cleanup, memory & emotions
11:13 Wearables & “orthosomnia”: what trackers can/can’t measure
14:34 Key findings: frequent sleep med use and dementia risk; differences by race
17:35 Specific meds: why hard to isolate; benzos/antihistamines most common
20:19 Is medicated sleep the same as natural sleep?
22:38 What research says about Ambien/other drugs; need for better trials
26:01 Short-sleep genes and individual differences
27:54 Viewer Q: melatonin and dementia
30:13 Would Dr. Leng take sleep meds?
32:21 What’s next: personalized sleep research + CBT-I + sleep apnea screening
34:51 Best sleep tracking tech: contactless mats/radar vs watches
37:13 Closing thoughts
37:40 Outro