0352 A Large-Scale EEG Study at Home to Objectivise Effects of Ageing on Slow Wave Sleep and Process S

Abstract

Introduction Several studies have shown slow wave sleep (SWS) is altered with ageing. However, most of these studies have been conducted in-lab and usually over a single night. In this study, we assessed the evolution of process S with ageing by analysing the dynamics of endogenous and auditory-evoked slow waves in a large population. Methods 300 participants (200 M, 20 - 70 y.o.) were selected from volunteers users wearing a sleep headband for at least 3 nights, meeting the criteria of high signal quality and having no subjective sleep complaints nor being shift-workers. The Dreem headband is a connected device able to monitor EEG signals as well as pulse and movement and performs sleep staging in real-time automatically. Slow waves were detected as large negative deflections on the filtered EEG signals during NREM sleep. The auditory evoked slow waves were done using a previously validated closed-loop procedure. Results In our study, age was strongly correlated with N3 sleep duration (r=-0.34, p<0.0001), slow wave amplitude (r=-0.25, p<0.0001), and slow wave density (r=-0.40, p<0.0001). The slope of the slow wave activity, representing the process S here, was significantly decreased (r=-0.32, p<0.0001). This effect was mainly due to changes in the density of slow waves in the first 2 hours of sleep (r=-0.41, p<0.0001). Finally, our results show a decrease in the probability of auditory evoked slow waves (r=-0.43, p<0.0001). Conclusion These results confirmed the in-lab studies showing a heterogeneous alteration of homoeostatic process S with age, as well as a general decrease of slow wave occurrences, that is observed in parallel of a decrease of the probability of evoking slow waves, suggesting a global change in the system responsible for slow wave generation. Support This study was supported by Dreem sas and ANR, FLAG ERA 2015, HPB SLOW-Dyn