Researchers claim sleeping pill helps stave off Alzheimer’s

Taking a sleeping pill before bed helps stave off Alzheimer’s by reducing the build-up of damaging proteins in the brain, research suggests.

US scientists have conducted a study using an insomnia drug to see whether the medication could reduce the levels of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Picture: iStock

Taking a sleeping pill before bed helps stave off Alzheimer’s by reducing the build-up of damaging proteins in the brain, research suggests.

US scientists conducted a study using an insomnia drug to see whether the medication could reduce the levels of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The study found the amount of amyloid beta protein, which builds up in “plaques” in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, was 10 to 20 per cent lower in healthy subjects who had been given high doses of the drug over the previous two nights compared with those given a placebo.

Levels of another Alzheimer’s-linked protein, called hyperphosphorylated tau, which can form tangles that kill neurons, were 10 to 15 per cent lower among the high-dose subjects, according to the study, published in the journal Annals of Neurology.

“These results are very encouraging. This drug is already available and proven safe, and now we have evidence that it affects the levels of proteins that are critical for driving Alzheimer’s disease,” the researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis said.

They stressed, however, that the research was still at an early stage and they could not yet recommend that people start taking insomnia drugs to address Alzheimer’s fears.

Suvorexant, the drug used in the study, has been approved for use in Australia, Japan and the US under the name Belsomra but is not approved in the UK.

The drug works by inhibiting the production of orexin, a molecule that promotes wakefulness.

“If we can lower amyloid every day, we think the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain will decrease over time,” neurology professor Brendan Lucey said.

He said further studies, conducted over months, would be needed, as well as research with people who already had amyloid plaques forming.

“The best advice I can give is to get a good night’s sleep if you can and, if you can’t, to see a sleep specialist and get your sleep problems treated,” he said.