Effects of long-term sleep disruption on cognitive function and brain amyloid-? burden: a case-control study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Recent evidence indicates that disrupted sleep could contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease by influencing the production and/or clearance of the amyloid-? protein. We set up a case-control study to investigate the association between long-term work-induced sleep disruption, cognitive function, and brain amyloid-? burden. METHODS:Nineteen male maritime pilots (aged 48-60?years) with chronic work-related sleep disruption and a sex-, age-, and education-matched control sample (n?=?16, aged 50-60?years) with normal sleep completed the study. Primary sleep disorders were ruled out with in-lab polysomnography. Additional sleep measurements were obtained at home using actigraphy, sleep-wake logs, and a single-lead EEG device. Cognitive function was assessed with a neuropsychological test battery, sensitive to early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease. Brain amyloid-? burden was assessed in maritime pilots using 18F-flutemetamol amyloid PET-CT. RESULTS:Maritime pilots reported significantly worse sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)?=?8.8?±?2.9) during work weeks, compared to controls (PSQI?=?3.2?±?1.4; 95% CI 0.01 to 2.57; p?=?0.049). This was confirmed with actigraphy-based sleep efficiency (86% ±?3.8 vs. 89.3% ±?4.3; 95% CI 0.43 to 6.03; p?=?0.03). Home-EEG recordings showed less total sleep time (TST) and deep sleep time (DST) during work weeks compared to rest weeks (TST 318.56 (250.21-352.93) vs. TST 406.17 (340-425.98); p?=?0.001; DST 36.75 (32.30-58.58) vs. DST 51.34 (48.37-69.30); p?=?0.005)). There were no differences in any of the cognitive domains between the groups. For brain amyloid-? levels, mean global cortical standard uptake value ratios of 18F-flutemetamol were all in the normal range (1.009?±?0.059; 95% CI 0.980 to 1.037), confirmed by visual reads. CONCLUSIONS:Capitalizing on the particular work-rest schedule of maritime pilots, this study with a small sample size observed that long-term intermittent sleep disruption had no effects on global brain amyloid-? levels or cognitive function.

SUBMITTER: Thomas J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7450576 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature