Associations between objective sleep metrics and brain structure in cognitively unimpaired adults: interactions with sex and Alzheimer's biomarkers.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Sleep disturbances are prevalent in Alzheimer's disease (AD), probably emerging during its preclinical stage. Poor subjective sleep quality is linked to reduced brain volume and cortical thickness (CTh), but associations with objective sleep measures, particularly regarding sex and AD pathology, remain unclear.

Methods

We characterized 171 cognitively unimpaired adults from the ALzheimer and FAmilies (ALFA) Sleep study using actigraphy, MRI, amyloid beta 42/40, and phosphorylated tau at threonine 181 in cerebrospinal fluid.

Results

Lower sleep efficiency, higher wake after sleep onset (WASO), and sleep fragmentation were associated with lower CTh in the medial temporal lobe and other regions linked with AD and sleep disruption, even after adjusting for AD

SUBMITTER: Stankeviciute L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12198473 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature