ArticleSleep2021
The aging slow wave: a shifting amalgam of distinct slow wave and spindle coupling subtypes define slow wave sleep across the human lifespan.
Article in Sleep, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Deep sleep slow wave-spindle coupling is selectively linked to plasma amyloid-β levels in older adults in clinical trials.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Differences in sleep spindles and polysomnography in humans: a meta-analysis on the influence of age, sex, and cognitive ability.Frontiers in sleep · 2026Review
- SLEEP AND NEURODEGENERATION: EXAMINING POTENTIAL PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS.Current sleep medicine reports · 2025Article
- Does sleep change the emotional bias in memory in older adults?Neuropsychologia · 2025Article
- Article
- Closed-Loop Auditory Stimulation (CLAS) During Sleep Augments Language and Discovery Learning.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- The human claustrum tracks slow waves during sleep.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Weekday and weekend sleep times across the human lifespan: a model-based simulation.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2024Article
- Age-related changes in sleep spindle characteristics in individuals over 75 years of age: a retrospective and comparative study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Relationship between ODI and sleep structure of obstructive sleep apnea and cardiac remodeling.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2024Article
- Mapping sleep's oscillatory events as a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- Possible mechanisms to improve sleep spindles via closed loop stimulation during slow wave sleep: A computational study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Respiration modulates sleep oscillations and memory reactivation in humans.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Memory ability and retention performance relate differentially to sleep depth and spindle type.iScience · 2023Article
- The Hierarchy of Coupled Sleep Oscillations Reverses with Aging in Humans.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Emotional memory consolidation during sleep is associated with slow oscillation-spindle coupling strength in young and older adults.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Article
- Large-scale waves of activity in the neonatal mouse brain in vivo occur almost exclusively during sleep cycles.Developmental neurobiology · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectivesSlow wave and spindle coupling supports memory consolidation, and loss of coupling is linked with cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. Coupling is proposed to be a possible biomarker of neurological disease, yet little is known about the different subtypes of coupling that normally occur throughout human development and aging. Here we identify distinct subtypes of spindles within slow wave upstates and describe their relationships with sleep stage across the human lifespan.
methodsCoupling within a cross-sectional cohort of 582 subjects was quantified from stages N2 and N3 sleep across ages 6-88 years old. Results were analyzed across the study population via mixed model regression. Within a subset of subjects, we further utilized coupling to identify discrete subtypes of slow waves by their coupled spindles.
resultsTwo different subtypes of spindles were identified during the upstates of (distinct) slow waves: an "early-fast" spindle, more common in stage N2 sleep, and a "late-fast" spindle, more common in stage N3. We further found stages N2 and N3 sleep contain a mixture of discrete subtypes of slow waves, each identified by their unique coupled-spindle timing and frequency. The relative contribution of coupling subtypes shifts across the human lifespan, and a deeper sleep phenotype prevails with increasing age.
conclusionsDistinct subtypes of slow waves and coupled spindles form the composite of slow wave sleep. Our findings support a model of sleep-dependent synaptic regulation via discrete slow wave/spindle coupling subtypes and advance a conceptual framework for the development of coupling-based biomarkers in age-associated neurological disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.