Accelerometer-measured weekend catch-up sleep and incident dementia: A prospective cohort study

Healthy sleep may support cognitive health, but the role of weekend catch-up sleep is unclear.

Among 83,776 dementia-free UK Biobank participants aged ≥50 years, sleep duration was estimated from 7-day accelerometer data (2013-2015). Weekend catch-up sleep was defined as the weekend-weekday sleep duration difference. Cox regression model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause dementia associated with weekend catch-up sleep.

During follow-up (median: 8.0 years), 713 participants developed all-cause dementia. Compared with ≤0.5 h, HRs for all-cause dementia across catch-up sleep categories were 0.91 (0.74-1.11) for > 0.5-1 h, 0.64 (0.49-0.86) for > 1-1.5 h, 0.84 (0.60-1.16) for > 1.5-2 h, and 0.83 (0.60-1.16) for > 2 h. The association was stronger among participants with weekday sleep < 8 h (HR: 0.49, 0.29-0.81 for > 1-1.5 h) but non-significant in those with ≥8 h (p-interaction = 0.039).

Moderate weekend catch-up sleep was linked to lower dementia risk, especially among individuals with less weekday sleep.

In this prospective cohort study, moderate accelerometer-measured weekend catch-up sleep was linked to a reduced risk of dementia, with 1-1.5 h associated with the lowest risk. The relation was more pronounced in participants with weekday sleep duration < 8 h/day, but non-significant among those with a longer weekday sleep. Similar associations were observed across the subgroups stratified by sociodemographic and lifestyle factors.