Short sleep duration and dementia: a narrative review

Abstract

Short sleep duration has been linked to the development of neurocognitive disorders. Still, current evidence for this relationship is conflicting. In this review, we summarize evidence regarding the relationship between short sleep duration and neurocognitive disorders, which shows that short sleep duration increases the risk of incident major neurocognitive disorders beginning as early as midlife. The pathological brain changes attributed to poor sleep may be related to changes in brain microstructure and accumulation of debris in the brain. More evidence is needed to fully understand the relationship between sleep duration and cognitive decline and the molecular changes that link the two. Measures of sleep quality such as sleep duration represent a potentially modifiable risk factor for the prevention of cognitive decline and neurocognitive disorders.

Keywords:

• Dementia
• mild cognitive impairment
• neurocognitive disorders
• short sleep duration