Session Schedule

Find a specific presentation in the session by navigating to the timestamp indicated below.

0:00:00
Introduction

0:01:26
Sleep microarchitecture, cognition and neurodegeneration
Thien Thanh Dang-Vu (Canada)

0:25:28
Effects of a Lifestyle Intervention on Sleep and Circadian Rest-Activity Rhythms in Older Adults at Risk of Cognitive Decline
Katie Stone (United States)

0:41:48
Impact of sleep-disordered breathing on brain health and cognition, and its potential modulation by lifestyle
Géraldine Rauchs (France)

1:00:14
Relationship between sleep disturbance and dementia biomarkers in at ‘at-risk’ sample
Sharon Naismith (Australia

1:23:24
Question and Answer

Summary

Sleep and sleep disorders are increasingly recognized as factors contributing to age-related cognitive decline and the onset or progression of neurodegenerative diseases. However, it remains unclear which precise sleep variables are predominantly involved in the neurodegenerative process and through which neurobiological pathways. Over the past few years, several cohorts of older individuals have been initiated across the world with the aim of identifying predictors and biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases, and including self-reported and/or objective sleep variables combined with multimodal neuroimaging examinations and blood samples collection. These datasets constitute crucial opportunities to characterize the mechanisms by which sleep contribute to cognitive decline in the older age, and to identify sleep-related targets for interventions aimed at preventing or delaying neurodegenerative processes. This symposium will highlight new data linking objective and subjective sleep and circadian rest-activity rhythm measures, sleep disorders (e.g., insomnia, sleep apnea), cognitive performances, neurodegenerative biomarkers and diagnoses arising from cohorts in Europe, Australia and North America. In addition, results from recent clinical trials will show how sleep-related interventions may constitute promising avenues for the prevention of cognitive deterioration in older individuals, and how targeted behavioral interventions (e.g. physical activity) to slow cognitive decline may impact both sleep and cognition. Beyond presenting novel insights on the links between sleep and neurodegenerative diseases, the symposium will also provide a cross-cultural perspective on these relationships given the diversity of the populations represented through our presentations. We hope that this symposium will also stimulate the impetus to pool data from various cohorts, facilitating future work in large and more diverse populations to answer pressing questions in the field. One of the major challenges is to identify the populations most at risk of developing neurodegenerative disease, in order to offer them targeted sleep-related interventions and thus promote healthy aging.