ArticleBMC medicine2023
NREM sleep as a novel protective cognitive reserve factor in the face of Alzheimer's disease pathology.
Article in BMC medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human tau pathology is associated with lonely, nontraveling slow waves linked to memory impairment.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- A gradual and sustainable approach to diagnosing sleep and circadian disturbances in dementia.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Cyclic alternating pattern in sleep electroencephalography as a novel predictor of dementia: A prospective study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- HK-ASAP study: protocol for a prospective cohort study on sleep quality, brain reserve and cognitive phenotypes in community-dwelling older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Sleep disorders and sleep behaviors as predictors of neurodegenerative diseases.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Zolpidem restores sleep and decreases amyloid in a mouse model.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Long-term forgetting, sleep, and tau in autosomal-dominant Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Longitudinal cardiorespiratory wearable sleep staging in the home.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sleep duration promotes resistance and resilience to tau in older women at risk for Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- SLEEP AND NEURODEGENERATION: EXAMINING POTENTIAL PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS.Current sleep medicine reports · 2025Article
- Sleep in neurodegenerative diseases: A focus on melatonin, melanin-concentrating hormone and orexin.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Article
- Sleep Abnormalities and Risk of Alzheimer's Disease.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2025Review
- Zolpidem restores sleep and slows Alzheimer's progression in a mouse model.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- REM Sleep Misfires: Intruding Delta Waves Forecast Tau, Amyloid, and Forgetting in Aging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Modifiable risk factor profiles moderate the effect of β-amyloid pathology on cognition in aging.Neurobiology of aging · 2025Article
- Anxious-depressive symptoms and sleep disturbances across the Alzheimer disease spectrum.Nature. Mental health · 2025Article
- Review
- Independent associations of sleep and physical activity with cognition are mediated by hippocampal microstructure in middle-aged and older adults.Neurobiology of aging · 2025Article
- The stability of slow-wave sleep and EEG oscillations across two consecutive nights of laboratory polysomnography in cognitively normal older adults.Journal of sleep research · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlzheimer's disease (AD) pathology impairs cognitive function. Yet some individuals with high amounts of AD pathology suffer marked memory impairment, while others with the same degree of pathology burden show little impairment. Why is this? One proposed explanation is cognitive reserve i.e., factors that confer resilience against, or compensation for the effects of AD pathology. Deep NREM slow wave sleep (SWS) is recognized to enhance functions of learning and memory in healthy older adults. However, that the quality of NREM SWS (NREM slow wave activity, SWA) represents a novel cognitive reserve factor in older adults with AD pathology, thereby providing compensation against memory dysfunction otherwise caused by high AD pathology burden, remains unknown.
methodsHere, we tested this hypothesis in cognitively normal older adults (N = 62) by combining
resultsWe demonstrated that NREM SWA significantly moderates the effect of Aβ status on memory function. Specifically, NREM SWA selectively supported superior memory function in individuals suffering high Aβ burden, i.e., those most in need of cognitive reserve (B = 2.694, p = 0.019). In contrast, those without significant Aβ pathological burden, and thus without the same need for cognitive reserve, did not similarly benefit from the presence of NREM SWA (B = -0.115, p = 0.876). This interaction between NREM SWA and Aβ status predicting memory function was significant after correcting for age, sex, Body Mass Index, gray matter atrophy, and previously identified cognitive reserve factors, such as education and physical activity (p = 0.042).
conclusionsThese findings indicate that NREM SWA is a novel cognitive reserve factor providing resilience against the memory impairment otherwise caused by high AD pathology burden. Furthermore, this cognitive reserve function of NREM SWA remained significant when accounting both for covariates, and factors previously linked to resilience, suggesting that sleep might be an independent cognitive reserve resource. Beyond such mechanistic insights are potential therapeutic implications. Unlike many other cognitive reserve factors (e.g., years of education, prior job complexity), sleep is a modifiable factor. As such, it represents an intervention possibility that may aid the preservation of cognitive function in the face of AD pathology, both present moment and longitudinally.
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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.