Nov. 8, 2024 — Older adults who feel very drowsy during the day and lack enthusiasm for everyday activities may be more likely to develop a condition that increases the risk of dementia, according to a new study in the journal Neurology.
People with the condition, known as motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR), often walk slowly and report cognitive complaints. But doctors have not diagnosed them with a walking disability or dementia.
Among study participants who reported excessive daytime sleepiness and a lack of enthusiasm, 35.5% developed MCR, researchers said, compared to only 6.7% who didn’t report those problems.
Even after adjusting for risk factors such as age and depression, the researchers found that people with excessive daytime sleepiness and an overall lack of enthusiasm were more than three times as likely to develop MCR compared to people who didn’t have those sleep-related problems.
“Our findings emphasize the need for screening for sleep issues,” study author Victoire Leroy, MD, PhD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, said in a news release. “There’s potential that people could get help with their sleep issues and prevent cognitive decline later in life.”
The study involved 445 people with an average age of 76 who didn’t have dementia. Researchers asked participants to fill out questionnaires about their sleep habits, questioned them about memory issues, and had them periodically walk on treadmills to test their walking speed.
The questionnaires asked people if they wake up in the middle of the night, cannot fall asleep within 30 minutes, feel too hot or cold in bed, or take medicines to help them sleep. To measure daytime sleepiness, the researchers asked participants how often they have difficulty staying awake while driving, eating meals, or engaging in social activity. To assess their enthusiasm, the researchers asked participants how much trouble they had maintaining enough enthusiasm to complete tasks.
Researchers defined 177 people as poor sleepers and 268 as good sleepers. There were 42 people diagnosed with MCR at the start of the study, and another 36 developed MCR during the study.
According to the researchers, the study did not establish that sleep problems cause MCR, only that there was an association between them. A limitation in the study was that participants did their own sleep assessments, so they may not have remembered everything accurately.
