Sleep architecture in Alzheimer’s disease continuum: The deep sleep question

As sleep appears to be closely related to cognitive status, we aimed to explore the association between the percentage of deep sleep, cognitive state, and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker amyloid-beta 42 in non-demented individuals. In this cross-sectional study, 90 non-demented participants from the Aiginition Longitudinal Biomarker Investigation of Neurodegeneration cohort underwent a one-night WatchPAT sleep evaluation. Participants were categorized by cognitive status (patients with mild cognitive impairment [MCI] or cognitively normal [CN] individuals) and CSF Aβ42 status (Aβ42 ≤ 1,030 pg/mL [A+] or Ab42 > 1,030 pg/mL [A-]). After controlling for age, sex, and years of education, a significant inverse association was found between the percentage of deep sleep and the odds of being classified as MCI compared to CN (OR = 0.86, 95% CI [0.76-0.97], <i>p</i> = 0.012). However, a non-significant trend for an inverse association between the percentage of deep sleep and the odds of being classified as A+ was observed (OR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.84-1.01], <i>p</i> = 0.092). This study demonstrates a significant link between deep sleep and MCI. Although more longitudinal studies are needed, deep sleep could potentially serve as a novel biomarker of cognitive decline and an intervention target for dementia prevention.