Table_12_Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, Sleep Continuity and Slow Wave Sleep as Predictors of Cognition, Mood, and Subjective Sleep Quality in Healthy Men and Women, Aged 20–84 Years.DOCX

Sleep and its sub-states are assumed to be important for brain function across the lifespan but which aspects of sleep associate with various aspects of cognition, mood and self-reported sleep quality has not yet been established in detail. Sleep was quantified by polysomnography, quantitative Electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis and self-report in 206 healthy men and women, aged 20–84 years, without sleep complaints. Waking brain function was quantified by five assessments scheduled across the day covering objectively assessed performance across cognitive domains including sustained attention and arousal, decision and response time, motor and sequence control, working memory, and executive function as well as self-reports of alertness, mood and affect. Controlled for age and sex, self-reported sleep quality was negatively associated with number of awakenings and positively associated with the duration of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, but no significant associations with Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) measures were observed. Controlling only for age showed that associations between objective and subjective sleep quality were much stronger in women than in men. Analysis of 51 performance measures demonstrated that, after controlling for age and sex, fewer awakenings and more REM sleep were associated significantly with better performance on the Goal Neglect task, which is a test of executive function. Factor analysis of the individual performance measures identified four latent variables labeled Mood/Arousal, Response Time, Accuracy, and Visual Perceptual Sensitivity. Whereas Mood/Arousal improved with age, Response Times became slower, while Accuracy and Visual perceptual sensitivity showed little change with age. After controlling for sex and age, nominally significant association between sleep and factor scores were observed such that Response Times were faster with more SWS, and Accuracy was reduced where individuals woke more often or had less REM sleep. These data identify a positive contribution of SWS to processing speed and in particular highlight the importance of sleep continuity and REM sleep for subjective sleep quality and performance accuracy across the adult lifespan. These findings warrant further investigation of the contribution of sleep continuity and REM sleep to brain function.

睡眠及其亚状态在生命全过程中对大脑功能的重要性不言而喻，然而，睡眠的哪些方面与认知、情绪及自我报告的睡眠质量的相关性尚缺乏详细的建立。本研究通过多导睡眠图、定量脑电图（EEG）分析和自我报告三种方法，对206名20至84岁、无睡眠问题的健康男女进行了睡眠量化分析。清醒大脑功能通过五项在一天内安排的评估来衡量，包括客观评估的认知领域性能，如持续的注意力和觉醒、决策和反应时间、运动和序列控制、工作记忆以及执行功能，以及警觉性、情绪和情感的自我报告。在控制年龄和性别的基础上，自我报告的睡眠质量与觉醒次数呈负相关，与快速眼动（REM）睡眠的持续时间呈正相关，但与慢波睡眠（SWS）指标之间未见显著关联。仅控制年龄后发现，客观睡眠质量与主观睡眠质量之间的关联在女性中比在男性中更为显著。对51项性能指标的因子分析揭示了四个潜在变量，分别标记为情绪/觉醒、反应时间、准确性和视觉感知敏感性。其中，情绪/觉醒随年龄增长而改善，反应时间变慢，而准确性和视觉感知敏感性在年龄上变化不大。在控制性别和年龄后，睡眠与因子分数之间观察到显著的相关性，即反应时间在慢波睡眠更多的情况下更快，而准确性在个体更频繁觉醒或REM睡眠较少的情况下降低。这些数据表明，慢波睡眠对处理速度有积极的贡献，并特别强调了睡眠连续性和REM睡眠对主观睡眠质量及成人生命周期内性能准确性的重要性。这些发现值得进一步研究睡眠连续性和REM睡眠对大脑功能贡献的作用。