Slow-wave Sleep Enhancement in Those at Risk for Alzheimer's Disease: Links With Memory, Excitotoxicity, and Plasma A-beta

Status: Recruiting
Location: See location...
Intervention Type: Behavioral
Study Type: Interventional
Study Phase: Early Phase 1
SUMMARY

Dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease affects approximately 5.6 million adults over age 65, with costs expected to rise from $307 billion to $1.5 trillion over the next 30 years. Behavioral interventions have shown promise for mitigating neurodegeneration and cognitive impairments. Sleep is a modifiable health behavior that is critical for cognition and deteriorates with advancing age and Alzheimer's disease. Thus, it is a priority to examine whether improving sleep modifies Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology and cognitive function. Extant research suggests that deeper, more consolidated sleep is positively associated with memory and executive functions and networks that underlie these processes. Preliminary studies confirm that time-in-bed restriction interventions increase sleep efficiency and non-rapid eye movement slow-wave activity (SWA) and suggest that increases in SWA are associated with improved cognitive function. SWA reflects synaptic downscaling predominantly among prefrontal connections. Downscaling of prefrontal connections with the hippocampus during sleep may help to preserve the long-range connections that support memory and cognitive function. In pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease, hyperactivation of the hippocampus is thought to be excitotoxic and is shown to leave neurons vulnerable to further amyloid deposition. Synaptic downscaling through SWA may mitigate the progression of Alzheimer's disease through these pathways. The proposed study will behaviorally increase sleep depth (SWA) through four weeks of time-in-bed restriction in older adults characterized on amyloid deposition and multiple factors associated with Alzheimer's disease risk. This study will examine whether behaviorally enhanced SWA reduces hippocampal hyperactivation, leading to improved task-related prefrontal-hippocampal connectivity, plasma amyloid levels, and cognitive function. This research addresses whether a simple, feasible, and scalable behavioral sleep intervention improves functional neuroimaging indices of excitotoxicity, Alzheimer's pathophysiology, and cognitive performance.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 65
Maximum Age: 85
Healthy Volunteers: t
View:

• Age 65-85.

• Self-report mean sleep efficiency (the time in bed spent asleep within the time of lights out to final awakening) \< 90% based on diary and actigraphy estimates and wake time after sleep onset \> 20 minutes based on diary and actigraphy estimates.

• Self-reported normal or corrected-to-normal visual and auditory acuity.

Locations
United States
Pennsylvania
UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital
RECRUITING
Pittsburgh
Contact Information
Primary
Kristine Wilckens, PhD.
wilckenska@upmc.edu
(412) 586-9434
Time Frame
Start Date: 2022-01-03
Estimated Completion Date: 2026-05-31
Participants
Target number of participants: 116
Treatments
Experimental: Time in Bed Restriction
Time in Bed (TIB) restriction of 85% of habitual TIB.
Active_comparator: Control
Participants will follow their typical sleep schedule consistent with measured average sleep and wake times.
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Leads: University of Pittsburgh
Collaborators: National Institute on Aging (NIA)

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov