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A deep slumber might help buffer against memory loss for older adults facing a heightened burden of Alzheimer's disease, research suggests. Deep sleep, also known as non-REM slow-wave sleep, can act as a "cognitive reserve factor" that may increase resilience against a protein in the brain called beta-amyloid that is linked to memory loss caused by dementia. The new research reveals that superior amounts of deep, slow-wave sleep can act as a protective factor against memory decline in those with existing high amounts of Alzheimer's disease pathology—a potentially significant advance. The researchers recruited 62 older adults from the Berkeley Aging...

Slow waves are generated by the middle frontal lobe, and as this region deteriorates with age, the elderly tend to lose the ability to experience long REM sleep University of California, Berkeley, scientists have found a connection between the amount of sleep one gets in their old age and the quality of their memory. The UC Berkeley team, led by Matthew Walker, believes that forgetfulness in old age may be attributed to a lack of deep, non-rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. According to the study, the slow brain waves produced during deep REM sleep help move memories from the hippocampus (short-term memory storage...

The brains of older people only appear to slow down because they have so much information to compute, much like a full-up hard drive, scientists believe. Older people do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains, scientists believe. Much like a computer struggles as the hard drive gets full up, so to (sic) do humans take longer to access information, it has been suggested. Researchers say this slowing down it is not the same as cognitive decline. “The human brain works slower in old age,” said...