Bad new for lovers of nightlife and the "wee hours" means the absence of a proper night's sleep may present a bill for years to come. Now do not realize it, but later on you might regret not having slept when it was time. The fact that a few hours sleep at night could have very negative effects on general health and, in particular, that of the brain. The two studies suggest.

The last study was conducted by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis (USA) and showed how lack of sleep is linked to Alzheimer's disease.

The test micro dialysis performed on mice and found that extracellular levels of amyloid-beta in the brain drop significantly during sleep and increases during wakefulness. Amyloidosis, as is well known, is a protein that has been associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Dave Holtzman discovered that the dynamics of the amyloid beta confident sull'ormone orexin and forcing animals to stay awake or sleep affects the protein levels: that is, increases or decreases the presence of beta amyloid plaque.

In a previous study, Holtzman had shown that synaptic activity triggered the release of beta amyloid, suggesting that this latest study, mice deprived of sleep produced more amyloid beta plaque because their brain has been stimulated more than usual.

Although it is formally difficult to relate research findings to humans, a previous study published in the scientific journal "Neuron" seems to give support to this thesis.