Association between sleep & cognition in older adults_v.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pilot study on the variability of sleep and its association with daily variation in cognition and functioning in older adults.
IRAS ID
202293
Contact name
Sara Balouch
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
Sleep plays a role in restoring and repairing the body and mind, preventing illness, brain development, and memory consolidation and learning. As we age sleep quantity, quality and efficiency decreases. Poor quality sleep, lack of sleep and sleep disorders are associated with neurocognitive disorders. The existing literature on sleep focuses mostly on individual mean averages, but as sleep is naturally variable and sleep patterns change across the lifespan, intra-individual variability (IIV), which quantifies the daily variation around the mean is more appropriate to sleep research. However, this kind of study in older adults with neurocognitive disorders is rare and existing results are mixed. We propose to pilot a study that a) documents sleep IIV and b) investigates the relationship between the IIV of sleep and cognitive/functional performance in older adults with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and no memory impairments (controls). Participants will be aged 65-85 years and will be recruited from memory clinics and the local community. Participants will be visited by the researcher in their homes twice (2 weeks apart) to administer a range of measures on cognitive ability, quality of life, activities of daily living, IQ, sleep quality, anxiety and depression. All participants will wear an Actiwatch (activity & light monitor worn on wrist) for 2 weeks continuously to measure sleep. The researcher will take daily cognitive measures over the phone (except on Sundays). Everyday (except Sundays) participants will also complete a diary measuring subjective sleep, memory slips and mood. We will examine the association between daily sleeping patterns and daily cognitive and functional performance. It is hoped that the results of this study will inform a larger scale study on sleep and cognitive and functional performance in older adults, which will ultimately inform advice on optimal sleep behaviour for older adults.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0339
Date of REC Opinion
12 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion