lack of sleep and dementia

[darkoshi]

This article (it is brief - click to read the full text) emphasizes the importance of sleep (something I don't get enough up):

Sleep well — and reduce your risk of dementia and death (May 2021, Harvard.edu)

consistently sleeping six hours or less at age 50, 60, and 70 was associated with a 30% increase in dementia risk compared to a normal sleep duration of seven hours. The mean age of dementia diagnosis was 77 years.
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What's new here is that inadequate sleep in midlife raises one's risk of dementia. ... For example, if you're currently only sleeping four to five hours because you're up late working every night, you might want to change your habits, otherwise you risk developing dementia by the time you retire!
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By looking at individuals who were initially studied in midlife — some as young as age 50 — we now have greater certainty that poor sleep can increase one's risk of developing dementia 25 years or more in the future.
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When we sleep, however, brain cells and their connections actually shrink. This shrinking allows more space between the brain cells, so that beta amyloid and other substances that accumulate during the day can be flushed away.
So the theory is, if you don't get enough sleep, your brain won't have enough time to drain away beta amyloid and other substances. These substances then continue to accumulate, day after day, until they cause dementia.