Sleep disturbances as risk factors for neurodegeneration later in life.

Sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea, are associated with the risk of Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and vascular dementia in national scale biobanks.These sleep disorders imparted significant risk up to 15 years before the onset of a neurodegenerative disease.The cumulative number of sleep disorders in the electronic health records were associated with a higher risk of neurodegeneration related to dementia and vascular dementia.Sleep related risk factors are independent of genetic risk for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, potentially compensating for low genetic risk in overall disease etiology.Significant multiplicative interaction exists regarding the combined risk of sleep disorders and Parkinson's disease.