REM sleep is associated with white matter integrity in cognitively healthy, older adults

Abstract

There is increasing awareness that self-reported sleep abnormalities are negatively associated with brain structure and function in older adults. Less is known, however, about how objectively measured sleep associates with brain structure. We objectively measured athome sleep to investigate how sleep architecture and sleep quality related to white matter microstructure in older adults. 43 cognitively normal, older adults underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and a sleep assessment within a six-month period. Participants completed the PSQI, a subjective measure of sleep quality, and used an at-home sleep recorder (Zeo, Inc.) to measure total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), and percent time in light sleep (LS), deep sleep (DS), and REM sleep (RS). Multiple regressions predicted fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) of the corpus callosum as a function of total PSQI score, TST, SE, and percent of time spent in each sleep stage, controlling for age and sex. Greater percent time spent in RS was significantly associated with higher FA (β = 0.41, p = 0.007) and lower MD (β =-0.30, p = 0.03). Total PSQI score, TST, SE, and time spent in LS or DS were not significantly associated with FA or MD (p>0.13). Percent time spent in REM sleep, but not quantity of light and deep sleep or subjective/objective measures of sleep quality, positively predicted white matter microstructure integrity. Our results highlight an important link between REM sleep and brain health that has the potential to improve sleep interventions in the elderly.

Genetic inactivation of SARM1 axon degeneration pathway improves outcome trajectory after experimental traumatic brain injury based on pathological, radiological, and functional measures

“…6 ). Sleep disorders are common in patients with chronic TBI and sleep patterns may contribute to neurodegeneration, particularly white matter degeneration [ 2 , 66 , 75 ]. Sleep data was analyzed for Sarm1 WT and Sarm1 KO mice during two light/dark cycles.…”

“…Pathological and structural benefits of Sarm1 knockout were complemented by behavioral studies that show beneficial effects on motor learning and sleep assessments (Figs. 5 , 6 ) [ 2 , 55 ]. Our results extend beyond previous reports in Sarm1 KO mice to now examine complex behaviors during the chronic phase post-TBI.…”

Genetic inactivation of SARM1 axon degeneration pathway improves outcome trajectory after experimental traumatic brain injury based on pathological, radiological, and functional measures

“…Sleep behavior was selected in place of social interaction as a highly translational assessment for post-traumatic neurodegeneration (Figure 6). Sleep disorders are common in patients with chronic TBI and sleep patterns may contribute to neurodegeneration, particularly white matter degeneration [2, 63, 72]. Sleep data was analyzed for Sarm1 WT and Sarm1 KO mice during two light/dark cycles.…”

“…Our previous study showed that CC pathology in an experimental model of chronic demyelination induces a social deficit [1]. This study looked to determine if a social deficit, that was not present at more acute time points after single impact TBI [2], develops at a chronic time point. Both TBI and sham mice spent a significantly greater amount of time interacting with the carrier containing the unfamiliar mouse compared to the empty carrier ( A ).…”

Predicting sleep quality from brain white matter volume: A voxel-based morphometry study

“…Until now, most studies focused on special groups (i.e., community-dwelling older adults, depression symptomatology, primary insomnia, Parkinson's Disease, and Mild traumatic brain injuries), and the relationship between sleep and brain white matter microstructure by utilizing diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) (Altendahl et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Raikes et al, 2018;Wei et al, 2019). For example, patients with insomnia tended to show altered diffusion-tensor based network characteristics between the right frontal, temporal, and subcortical areas (including the hippocampus, thalamus, and precuneus) (Wei et al, 2019).…”