Alzheimer's disease: sleep, neuronal activation and the default mode network

Abstract

More than 100 years after the first publication on Alzheimer’s disease (AD), this neurodegenerative disease now affects a significant and increasing part of the elderly population. The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is however still unclear and effective treatment is lacking. Understanding the role of amyloid-β in AD pathology, but also in health, is of great significance for the development of an eventual treatment. In the past decade it has become clear that, in health, neuronal activation increases amyloid-β levels and that sleep decreases neuronal activity and amyloid-β. We speculate that by increasing amyloid-β burden in the structures involved in the default mode network – the major affected areas in AD – sleep disorders can increase AD risk. Treating sleep disorders early in life could therefore have a major impact on worldwide AD burden.