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34 - The Role of Sleep in Cognitive Aging

from Part V - Later Life and Interventions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2020

By
Taylor Terlizzese  and
Michael K. Scullin
Edited by
Ayanna K. Thomas  and
Angela Gutchess
Ayanna K. Thomas
Affiliation:
Tufts University, Massachusetts
Angela Gutchess
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
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Summary

Aging is marked by cognitive decline, which in the case of Alzheimer’s disease is associated with tremendous global economic burden. Identifying modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline is therefore of paramount importance. In this chapter, we describe how aging compromises sleep quality and sleep architecture at a rate that parallels normal age-related cognitive decline. We argue that understanding the neurocognitive functions of sleep – frontal lobe restoration, memory consolidation, and metabolite clearance – and how such functions change in later life will be key to informing why some older individuals maintain healthy cognitive functioning and other older individuals do not. Critically, by investigating how sleep, cognition, and aging interact, researchers and clinicians can develop sleep-related treatments that target preventing, or at least ameliorating, pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Keywords

sleep fragmentationslow wave sleeprapid eye movement sleepsleep spindlessleep deprivationnappingpolysomnographymemory consolidationglymphatic systemfrontal lobehippocampusAlzheimer’s diseasedementiaamyloidsleep apneahypoxiainsomniarestless legs syndromeperiodic limb movementsREM sleep behavior disorderinsomniacognitive behavioral therapycontinuous positive airway pressurelight exposurehypnotic medicationsmelatonininterventions
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Aging
A Life Course Perspective
 , pp. 628 - 644
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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