Journal article
Age-Related Changes in Sleep and Its Implications for Cognitive Decline in Aging Persons With Schizophrenia: A Critical Review
Schizophrenia bulletin, Vol.51(2), pp.513-521
03/14/2025
DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbae059
PMCID: PMC11908868
PMID: 38713085
Appears in UI Libraries Support Open Access
Abstract
Cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia that worsens with aging and interferes with quality of life. Recent work identifies sleep as an actionable target to alleviate cognitive deficits. Cardinal non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep oscillations such as sleep spindles and slow oscillations are critical for cognition. People living with schizophrenia (PLWS) and their first-degree relatives have a specific reduction in sleep spindles and an abnormality in their temporal coordination with slow oscillations that predict impaired memory consolidation. While NREM oscillatory activity is reduced in typical aging, it is not known how further disruption in these oscillations contributes to cognitive decline in older PLWS. Another understudied risk factor for cognitive deficits among older PLWS is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) which may contribute to cognitive decline.
We conducted a narrative review to examine the published literature on aging, OSA, and NREM sleep oscillations in PLWS.
Spindles are propagated via thalamocortical feedback loops, and this circuitry shows abnormal hyperconnectivity in schizophrenia as revealed by structural and functional MRI studies. While the risk and severity of OSA increase with age, older PLWS are particularly vulnerable to OSA-related cognitive deficits because OSA is often underdiagnosed and undertreated, and OSA adds further damage to the circuitry that generates NREM sleep oscillations.
We highlight the critical need to study NREM sleep in older PWLS and propose that identifying and treating OSA in older PLWS will provide an avenue to potentially mitigate and prevent cognitive decline.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Age-Related Changes in Sleep and Its Implications for Cognitive Decline in Aging Persons With Schizophrenia: A Critical Review
- Creators
- Bengi Baran - University of IowaEllen E Lee - University of California San Diego
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Schizophrenia bulletin, Vol.51(2), pp.513-521
- DOI
- 10.1093/schbul/sbae059
- PMID
- 38713085
- PMCID
- PMC11908868
- NLM abbreviation
- Schizophr Bull
- eISSN
- 1745-1701
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 05/07/2024
- Date published
- 03/14/2025
- Academic Unit
- Psychiatry; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984622889502771
Metrics
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