SLEEP DISTURBANCES AND MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN THE ENGLISH LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF AGEING

最近的科学发展清楚地表明，睡眠对大脑行为和功能有重要影响。特别是，它对记忆、协调和执行功能有非常重要的影响。此外，现在已经知道，在许多不同的临床情况下，睡眠障碍的严重程度与大脑的这些功能之间存在关系，并已表明睡眠障碍可能是进行性大脑疾病(如阿尔茨海默病)的重要早期标志。由于睡眠障碍决定了各种脑相关疾病中认知(脑)损害的严重程度和类型，它们的诊断和治疗可能会减缓疾病的进展。因此，睡眠障碍可能存在于轻度脑损伤的个体中，并且是可以治疗的。例如，这一点很重要，因为治疗可能会推迟从轻度脑损伤到痴呆症的进一步进展。因此，必须开发工具来轻松、准确地检测这些处于较大风险的个人。我们拟议的研究将使用已经从英国老龄化纵向研究(ELSA)收集的一大组(N~10,000)50岁以上的男性和女性的数据来评估两种类型的轻微脑损伤之间的联系的证据，这些人自我报告任何睡眠障碍。我们项目的具体目标是探索睡眠数量(即持续时间)和质量之间的联系，以及与ELSA研究中不同类型的轻度脑损伤的关系。我们还将探索哪些不同的社会、行为和生化因素对这些联系产生影响。这将为未来分析认知(大脑)功能进一步下降的原因奠定基础，认知(大脑)功能可能会在随后几年和随着个人年龄的增长而进一步下降。

Recent scientific developments clearly indicate that sleep has an important effect on brain behaviour and function. In particular, it has very important effects on memory, co-ordination and executive functions. Furthermore, it is now known that there is a relationship between the severity of sleep disturbance and these functions of the brain in a number of different clinical conditions and it has been suggested that sleep disturbance may be an important early marker of progressive brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. As sleep disorders determine the severity and type of cognitive (brain) impairment in various brain-related disorders their diagnosis and treatment may slow disease progression. It is possible that sleep disorders may, therefore, be present and treatable in individuals with mild brain impairment. This is important as treatment may delay further progression from mild brain impairment to dementia, for example. It is therefore essential to develop tools to easily and accurately detect these individuals who are at greater risk. Our proposed study will assess the evidence for links between two types of mild brain impairments using data which has already been collected on a large group (N~10,000) of men and women over the age of 50 years from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) who self-report any sleep disturbances. The specific aims of our project are to explore the links between the quantity (i.e. duration) and quality of sleep in relation to the different types of mild brain impairment in individuals from the ELSA study. We will also explore which different social, behavioural and biochemical factors have an effect on these links. This will establish the baseline for future analyses of the causes of further decline in cognitive (brain) function that may occur in subsequent years and as individuals get older.