Sleep Oscillations and Aging

Sleep spindles and slow waves are physiological markers for age-related changes in gray matter in brain regions supporting problem-solving skills

“…Sleep is important for good physical and mental health as well as memory (for review, see Rasch and Born 2013 ), including declarative memory ( Plihal and Born 1997 ; Gais et al 2000 ), procedural motor skills ( Smith and MacNeill 1994 ; Nader and Smith 2003 ; Fogel et al 2007 , 2015 ), and cognitively complex procedural skills necessary for problem-solving ( van den Berg et al 2019 ). However, the benefit of sleep for offline memory consolidation is impacted by reductions in both quantity and quality of sleep with increasing age ( Fogel et al 2012 ; Mander et al 2017 ; Sergeeva et al 2020 ). For example, as we age, the total amount of slow wave sleep (SWS) is dramatically reduced ( Feinberg et al 1967 ; Blois et al 1983 ; Bliwise 1993 ; Carrier et al 2001 ; Ohayon et al 2004 ; Cajochen et al 2006 ).…”

“…Both sleep and memory issues are the most common complaints reported in aging populations. Age-related changes in sleep have a negative impact on sleep-dependent memory consolidation (for reviews, see Mander et al 2017 ; Sergeeva et al 2020 ). Simultaneous EEG-fMRI brain-imaging studies in healthy, young adults have revealed that spindles are associated with increased hemodynamic responses in the thalamic nuclei, paralimbic areas, frontal cortex, and cortical areas involved in sensorimotor processing, as well as in the hippocampus ( Schabus et al 2007 ).…”