The Impact of Sleep on Neuropsychological Performance in Cognitively Intact Older Adults Using a Novel In-Home Sensor-Based Sleep Assessment Approach

Abstract

The relationship between recent episodes of poor sleep and cognitive testing performance in healthy cognitively intact older adults is not well understood. In this exploratory study we examined the impact of recent sleep disturbance, sleep duration, and sleep variability on cognitive performance in 63 cognitively intact older adults using a novel unobtrusive in-home sensor-based sleep assessment methodology. Specifically, we examined the impact of sleep the night prior, the week prior, and the month prior to a neuropsychological evaluation on cognitive performance. Results showed that mildly disturbed sleep the week prior and month prior to cognitive testing was associated with reduced working memory on cognitive evaluation. One night of mild sleep disturbance was not associated with decreased cognitive performance the next day. Sleep duration was unrelated to cognition. In-home, unobtrusive, sensor monitoring technologies provide a novel method for objective, long-term, and continuous assessment of sleep behavior and other everyday activities that might contribute to decreased or variable cognitive performance in healthy older adults.

Keywords:

• Healthy aging
• Sleep
• Cognition
• In-home monitoring
• Smart environment technology.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the research volunteers for their invaluable donation to research and the research staff for their assistance.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no potential conflict of interest with this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants P30AG008017, AG024978, AG024059, AG023477, and AG042191.