Poor Quality Sleep in Midlife May Be Associated With Poor Cognition Later in Life

Individuals whose sleep is characterized by high restlessness at about 40 years of age may have a higher risk of poor cognitive functioning 11 years later compared with individuals whose sleep is better, according to a prospective cohort study published yesterday inNeurology.“Since Alzheimer’s disease pathology begins to accumulate in the brain many years before symptom onset, it’s possible that sleep disturbances identified in late life—close to the time when memory loss becomes apparent—is actually the consequence of this pathology that has been developing s ilently over the years,” said Yue Leng, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, in anews release.Leng and colleagues used data from theCoronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, during which participants were assessed every two to five years over 30 years. The current study took place from 2003 to 2005 and included 526 White and Blackadults with a mean age of 40 years (58%/42% women/men and 66%/44% White/Black). Participants wore wrist activity monitors for three consecutive days and nights on two occasions about one year apart. The wrist monitors measured both sleep duration and each participant ’s sleep fragmentation index, a measure of restlessness during their sleep calculated by measuring the amount of time they spent moving and the amount of time they were still for one minute or less. Participants also reported the times they went to bed and woke up and...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimer ’s cognitive impairment fragmentation index poor cognition poor sleep sleep duration UCSF Yue Leng Source Type: research