Better Sleep, Sharper Mind: Study Shows Sleep Quality and Apnea Link to Cognitive Function
UpdatedJuly 16, 2024
A recent comprehensive study from the Sleep and Dementia Consortium offers new insights into how sleep habits and disorders affect cognitive functioning in adults. Spanning five years and involving five U.S.-based population cohorts, the study explores the connection between sleep architecture, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and cognitive performance.
According to the research published in JAMA Network Open, better sleep quality, particularly sleep consolidation, and the absence of sleep apnea are associated with better global cognitive performance. This expansive work involved 5,946 adults aged 58-89 years, with the study curating and analyzing polysomnography (PSG)-derived sleep data and neuropsychological assessments.
The study discovered that factors such as sleep maintenance efficiency and reduced wakefulness after sleep onset (WASO) were linked to better global cognitive scores. Furthermore, counterparts with mild to severe OSA showed poorer global cognition when compared to those with minimal apnea symptoms. Surprisingly, the percentages of various sleep stages did not correlate significantly with cognition.
This work signifies a step forward in understanding the importance of uninterrupted sleep and managing sleep apnea in promoting cognitive health, particularly in midlife and older age brackets. Experts argue that the role of interventions to improve sleep for maintaining cognitive function merits further study.
The involvement of multiple community-based cohorts allowed the study to address some previously unexplored dimensions, including the identification of robust sleep variables related to cognitive processes and the observation of any systematic variances across different population segments, such as those delineated by sex and APOE genotype.
The study has several strengths, including its large pooled size and the objective at-home assessment of sleep, which provides a more accurate picture of participants' habitual sleep patterns. It does have limitations, such as a singular assessment of sleep and cognition and the potential bidirectional influence between poor sleep and cognitive decline. The consortium plans to continue its research by incorporating longitudinal PSG analyses and examining the incidence of dementia.
In conclusion, the Sleep and Dementia Consortium's findings underpin the potentially crucial role that sleep quality and the treatment of sleep apnea may play in cognitive function preservation and the wider understanding of cognitive health trajectories.
For more detailed information, you can access the full study published on JAMA Network Open by following this link.
This news article was built with the help of Buoy Health.
References
Pase, M. P., Harrison, S., Misialek, J. R., Kline, C. E., Cavuoto, M., Baril, A.-A., Yiallourou, S., Bisson, A., Himali, D., Leng, Y., Yang, Q., Seshadri, S., Beiser, A., Gottesman, R. F., Redline, S., Lopez, O., Lutsey, P. L., Yaffe, K., Stone, K. L., Purcell, S. M., & Himali, J. J. (2023). Sleep architecture, obstructive sleep apnea, and cognitive function in adults. JAMA Network Open, 6(7), Article e2325152. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.25152