Effect of sleep on overnight cerebrospinal fluid amyloid β kinetics

Sleep disturbances are associated with future risk of Alzheimer disease. Disrupted sleep increases soluble amyloid β, suggesting a mechanism for sleep disturbances to increase Alzheimer disease risk. We tested this response in humans using indwelling lumbar catheters to serially sample cerebrospinal fluid while participants were sleep-deprived, treated with sodium oxybate, or allowed to sleep normally. All participants were infused with ¹³C₆-leucine to measure amyloid β kinetics. We found that sleep deprivation increased overnight amyloid β38, amyloid β40, and amyloid β42 levels by 25 to 30% via increased overnight amyloid β production relative to sleeping controls. These findings suggest that disrupted sleep increases Alzheimer disease risk via increased amyloid β production. Ann Neurol 2018;83:197–204.