“Insomnia is a very relevant problem, it affects about 15% of the general population when it comes to chronic insomnia: so not simply the problem of not having slept well at night “. Luigi Ferini Strambi, director of sleep medicine center Irccs San Raffaele hospital in Milan, on the sidelines of the press conference for the launch of the Swiss company Idorsia in Italy, on the occasion of the 16th edition of World Sleep Congress which this year is held at the Nuvola dell’Eur in Rome.
“It is a very important prevalence data – he added Ferini Strambi -. The consequences of insomnia are very important, not only the immediate ones that the subject has the day after having slept badly, but also in the long term. Just think about the fact that sleep is a major cortisol inhibitor and therefore if you do not sleep well the consequence is that the blood pressure remains high and therefore there is a greater risk of hypertension, one of the factors that must be considered. Another very important aspect is also that relating to weight: the fact of not sleeping well also leads to the release of a particular hormone which is ghrelin, which induces to eat more and therefore consequently to have the risk of obesity“.
“Another equally important thing – continues the neurologist – is the effects on cognitive functions: we know that during the night a system called the glymphatic system works in our brain, which is a sort of scavenger that cleans the brain of all waste and proteins that must be degraded. Among these proteins there is Betamyloid and if the subject sleeps badly, unfortunately it accumulates and this can lead to an increased risk of a disease such as Alzheimer’s disease. So it is certainly a fundamental aspect to take into consideration “.
“Today we have many therapeutic options to treat insomnia – says – the neurologist – the important thing is to make the right classification and try to arrive at a correct diagnosis. The new category of drugs works in a completely different way than those we had up to now. which exploited above all the action on the Gaba system. This new category of drugs instead tries to inhibit the centers of wakefulness. So going to occupy the receptors of a substance called orexin, which is what makes you very awake, these drugs make the subject more easily fall into a physiological sleep “.
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