Is this really the first sign of Alzheimer’s?

Is your sleep cycle screwed up? Maybe you struggle to fall asleep at night. Or you fall asleep okay, but then you wake up every hour. Or you just can’t seem to sleep past 3:00 am no matter what time you go to bed.

Whatever irregular sleep patterns you’re dealing with, you can bet an out of whack body clock has something to do with it.

Your body clock (also known as your biological clock) is a group of molecules found in almost every tissue and organ in your body. These molecules create your body’s circadian rhythms, which regulate the timing of your bodily processes. Your circadian rhythms control processes like the release of your hormones, hunger, digestion and — of course — your sleep cycle.

When any of these bodily functions aren’t happening the way you’re used to, you know something’s up with your body clock. And it’s something you’ll want to take care of sooner rather than later, because a screwed up body clock is tied to some serious health risks. It increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s.

But when it comes to your body clock and health, things get kind of tricky. Scientists can’t always tell if a messed up body clock causes disease, or if it’s the first sign a disease is brewing in your body. And in the case of Alzheimer’s, they’re starting to think it may be the latter…

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Before memory loss comes body clock disruption

Long before you experience slips in memory or other symptoms of Alzheimer’s, your brain shows signs of the disease. In fact, the damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease can happen 15 to 20 years before trademark symptoms like memory loss appear.

Scientists speculate that if they could catch these brain changes early enough, they may be able to prevent Alzheimer’s or at least slow down its onset. That’s why they’re always on the lookout for ways to detect those early changes. And they may have found one…

A recent study from Washington University School of Medicine shows that a disrupted body clock may be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

The study included 189 cognitively normal adults who were 66 years old on average. Researchers tracked their circadian rhythms, looked at their brains through a PET scan and tested their cerebrospinal fluid.

Of all the people they tested, 50 showed physical changes associated with Alzheimer’s. They either had amyloid plaques in their brain scans or Alzheimer’s-related proteins in their spinal fluid. And all 50 of these people had disrupted sleep cycles. The people who didn’t show early warning signs of Alzheimer’s mostly had normal sleep cycles (besides a few outliers).

What does this mean?

A screwy body clock may be an Alzheimer’s warning sign to watch out for. People in the study who showed early physical changes associated with Alzheimer’s tended to have:

• Short spurts of activity and rest during the day and night (rather than activity during the day and rest at night).
• Fragmented sleep. So rather than sleeping for eight hours in a row, they might sleep for eight one-hour increments throughout the day.

Resetting your body clock

So will getting your body clock back on track keep yourself safe from Alzheimer’s?

The answer’s tricky. Like I said earlier, there’s a complicated relationship between your body clock and health risks. It’s a chicken and egg scenario where scientists don’t know whether body clock problems cause diseases or diseases cause body clock problems. But they all agree on one thing…

Related: Marvelous melatonin to sleep better, age slower and avoid disease

Getting your body clock back in order is a good idea, because it will likely improve your health and lower your overall disease risk.

So what’s the best way to get your body clock running smoothly again?

Well, when you’re body clock starts acting up, it may feel like it comes out of nowhere. But there are a lot of daily habits that might be messing it up, like:

• Drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and drinking caffeine… especially within four to six hours of bed time.
• Exposing yourself to chronic stress
• Intentionally skimping on sleep
• Eating large meals or drinking a lot before bedtime
• Looking at brightly lit computer, phone, tablet and TV screens before bedtime.
• Frequently napping during the day.
• Exercising vigorously within four hours of bedtime.
• Setting inconsistent sleep and wake times… like sleeping from 10 pm to 6 am some nights and 2 am to 10 am others.

Stop these bad habits and see if that resets your body clock. If not, you may want to try an activated form of B12 called methylcobalamin, which may help reset your body clock.