As an old guy with insomnia who freaks out seeing these headlines on the hacker news, I’d like to thank you sincerely. This shit is scary at my age.

"It is most likely that ..."

I agree with your main point and was going to write something like this. But "most likely" is likely unjustified. It could be a 3rd factor that causes both, but its likelihood is unknown.

Causation is often treated as a binary outcome in the popular press, more recent attempts at adding nuance to that via statistics aren't much better. Hard to come up with solutions or alternatives but speaking personally I felt humbled at my own paltry understanding when reading this[1] reference.

[1] https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-...

Yeah, but that's true with all long term nutrition and lifestyle studies, since it's impossible to test for causation with any degree of rigor (I don't even know what a long term double blind study would look like).

So, yes, correlation does not imply causation; it does still imply correlation. Even if a third variable, if you're getting poor sleep, you're more likely to have higher Amyloid-β build up

You joke, but my mum's mind has died from Alzheimer's and I'm literally having anxiety attacks induced from that leaving me to extremely poor sleep patterns.

Her father had Alzheimer's (undiagnosed AFAIK), and my mum had poor sleep patterns for sure (though not as bad as mine are, I think).

If there's truth in this then somewhat ironically, yes, there's a perpetuation there.

Sorry, to bring the town down.

I understand your desire to help here but it's important to understand these kinds of attitudes can be counter-productive. My saving grace after several months of difficulty sleeping a decade ago was a book called "Say Goodnight to Insomnia" where they systematically break down why most of what you've written here is incorrect. Within a week of reading the book breaking away from many believing many of the things you've written above I was finally able to sleep well and have ever since.

From the description:

My insomnia program achieves its remarkable results because it is based on a simple yet powerful concept: insomnia can only be treated by addressing all the underlying causes. In most instances, the causes of insomnia are thoughts and behaviors (habits) that are learned and can be unlearned. Some examples include: - Attitudes and beliefs about sleep - Negative, stressful thoughts about insomnia - Feelings of loss of control over sleep - Inadequate exercise or exposure to sunlight - Going to bed too early or sleeping too late - Trying to control sleep rather than letting it occur naturally - Negative responses to stress - Lying awake in bed, frustrated and tense

"...Based on this, if you are at risk for Alzheimers (your 23andme report shows this), then one of the most important things you can do today is to religiously track your sleep and make sure you get enough deep sleep daily."

Getting enough deep sleep is probably good general advice anyway, but it's as-yet unclear if Alzheimer's or amyloid-β plaque buildup is caused by poor sleep; or if a third condition causes both poor sleep and amyloid-β buildup, in which case addressing the underlying cause is what will help, not religiously tracking sleep. Not enough information to say, yet.

But, yes, everyone get a good night's sleep!