Two doses of an FDA-approved sleeping pill reduced levels of Alzheimer’s proteins in a small study of healthy volunteers led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Brendan Lucey, MD, associate professor of neurology and director of Washington University’s Sleep Medicine Center designed a small human study with doses of the sleeping aid known as suvorexant, which is approved for insomnia.  Lucey discovered that taking the sleeping pills may reduce the toxic buildup of Alzheimer’s proteins in the brain – a form tau proteins and amyloid beta proteins.  Success from the small, proof of concept study has led to a larger study to study longer term effects with older participants.

Sleep disturbances can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease. Many people eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s start experiencing difficulty falling and staying asleep years before cognitive problems such as memory loss and confusion emerge. Alzheimer’s disease involves changes to the brain that disrupt sleep, and poor sleep accelerates harmful changes to the brain.