Impaired slow-wave sleep accounts for brain aging-related increases in anxiety.

ABSTRACT: Aging doesn't just dull our memories; it destabilizes our emotions while further impairing sleep quantity and NREM sleep quality. Emotional dysregulation and anxiety symptoms in older adults accelerate their risk of cognitive decline and dementia, yet the underlying mechanisms remain largely unclear. In young adults, reductions in deep sleep, specifically the loss of slow wave activity (SWA) during non-REM sleep, impair the brain's ability to regulate anxiety overnight. This raises a testable hypothesis: Does age-related decline in SWA contribute to increased anxiety symptoms in older adults? We test this hypothesis in 61 cognitively healthy older adults (>65 y) experiencing varying levels of anxiety. Each participant underwent polysomnography-recorded sleep in the lab, followed by a struc

SUBMITTER: Ben Simon E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12917002 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature