Project 170643

The current overwhelming evidence that aging is associated with a significant increase in sleep-wake cycle complaints has important individual, social and economical consequences. Multiple factors, including health problems, side effects of medications and specific sleep disorders, account for this age-related increase in sleep difficulties. However, critical changes in the sleep-wake cycle are also observed in optimal aging, i.e., when people do not suffer from medical, psychiatric or specific sleep disorders. These age-related changes occur as early as the middle years of life. Between the ages of 20 and 60, increasing age is associated with less time asleep, more awakenings during sleep, less deep sleep, and more lighter stages of sleep. With increasing age, sleep is also more vulnerable to challenges such as jet-lag or shift-work. The long term goal of our research program is to understand the mechanisms that underlie age-related modifications of the sleep-wake cycle. In this proposal, we will use innovative brain imaging techniques to evaluate if age-related changes in brain morphology and activity may explain age-related changes in the sleep-wake cycle. The sleep of young (20-39 y.o.) and middle-aged subjects (40-60 y.o.) will studied under habitual and sleep deprivation conditions. This research should provide important answers on how aging impacts sleep oscillations in their role to protect sleep and how age-related changes in the brain during sleep oscillations may underlie changes in vigilance and cognition. The long-term goal of our research program is to develop preventive and therapeutic strategies for the older population based on the mechanisms underlying age-related changes of the sleep-wake cycle.

using brain imaging to study sleep under habitual and sleep deprivation conditions in different age groups