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Updated: Nov 24, 2025
Multi-Modal Home Sleep Monitoring in Older Adults
Published on: January 26, 2019
Slow-Wave Sleep and MRI Markers of Brain Aging in a Community-Based Sample
Andrée-Ann Baril1, Alexa S Beiser2, Vincent Mysliwiec2
1From the Framingham Heart Study (A.-A.B., A.S.B., J.R.R., C.L.S., J.M.Z., S.S., M.P.P. J.J.H.); Department of Neurology (A.-A.B., A.S.B., C.L.S., S.S., J.J.H.), Boston University School of Medicine; Department of Biostatistics (A.S.B., J.J.H. ), Boston University School of Public Health, MA; Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Diseases (V.M., C.L.S., S.S., J.J.H.), and Department of Population Health Sciences (J.J.H.), University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio; Centre for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine (E.S.), Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, CIUSSS-NIM; Department of Neuroscience (E.S.), Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Neurology (C.D., P.M.), and School of Medicine and Imaging of Dementia and Aging Laboratory, Center for Neuroscience (P.M.), University of California, Davis, Sacramento; Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders (S.R., D.J.G.), Brigham & Women's Hospital; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (S.R., D.J.G.); Division of Sleep Medicine Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; VA Boston Healthcare System (D.J.G.), Boston, MA; Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health (M.P.P.), School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (M.P.P.), Boston, MA. baril.andreeann@gmail.com.
Objective:
To test the hypothesis that reduced slow-wave sleep, or N3 sleep, which is thought to underlie the restorative functions of sleep, is associated with MRI markers of brain aging, we evaluated this relationship in the community-based Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort using polysomnography and brain MRI.
Methods:
We studied 492 participants (age 58.8 ± 8.8 years, 49.4% male) free of neurological diseases who completed a brain MRI scan and in-home overnight polysomnography to assess slow-wave sleep (absolute duration and percentage of total sleep). Volumes of total brain, total cortical, frontal cortical, subcortical gray matter, hippocampus, and white matter hyperintensities were investigated as a percentage of intracranial volume, and the presence of covert brain infarcts was evaluated. Linear and logistic regression models were adjusted for age, age squared, sex, time interval between polysomnography and MRI (3.3 ± 1.0 years), APOE ε4 carrier status, stroke risk factors, sleeping pill use, body mass index, and depression.
Results:
Less slow-wave sleep was associated with lower cortical brain volume (absolute duration, β [standard error] = 0.20 [0.08], p = 0.015; percentage, 0.16 [0.08], p = 0.044), lower subcortical brain volume (percentage, 0.03 [0.02], p = 0.034), and higher white matter hyperintensities volume (absolute duration, -0.12 [0.05], p = 0.010; percentage, -0.10 [0.04], p = 0.033). Slow-wave sleep duration was not associated with hippocampal volume or the presence of covert brain infarcts.
Conclusion:
Loss of slow-wave sleep might facilitate accelerated brain aging, as evidence by its association with MRI markers suggestive of brain atrophy and injury. Alternatively, subtle injuries and accelerated aging might reduce the ability of the brain to produce slow-wave sleep.
