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Improving Deep Sleep in Older Adults May Lower Dementia Risk
Each percentage decrease in slow-wave sleep per year in people 60 years and older is associated with a 27% increased risk of dementia, according to study results published in JAMA Neurology.
“Slow-wave sleep, or deep sleep, supports the aging brain in many ways, and we know that sleep augments the clearance of metabolic waste from the brain, including facilitating the clearance of proteins that aggregate in Alzheimer disease,” said researcher Matthew P. Pase, PhD, of Monash University in Australia and Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. “However, to date we have been unsure of the role of slow-wave sleep in the development of dementia.”
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The cohort study included 346 participants, age 60 years or older, from the Framingham Heart Study. Participants completed 2 overnight polysomnography (PSG) studies an average 5 years apart and then were followed for 17 years after their second PSG sleep study for incident dementia. The average age of participants at their second PSG was 69 years.
The percentage of slow-wave sleep decreased with aging and Alzheimer disease genetic risk, researchers reported. Hippocampal volumes suggestive of early neurodegeneration were not associated with slow-wave sleep changes.
Over 17 years of follow-up, 52 participants developed dementia. In models adjusted for age, sex, cohort, genetic factors, smoking status, and the use of sleep, antidepressant, and anxiolytic medications, each 1% loss of deep sleep annually translated to a 27% increase in dementia risk, the study found.
“These findings suggest that slow-wave sleep loss may be a modifiable dementia risk factor,” the research team advised.
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