Brain Age From Sleep EEG Linked to Future Dementia Risk

Using polysomnography, researchers found that the difference between a person’s brain age and their chronological age may influence their dementia risk. Image credit: A.J.

Schokora/ Stocksy Studies looking at the association between sleep patterns and future dementia risk have shown mixed results. A recent study used brain wave patterns recorded by an electroencephalogram (EEG) during a sleep study to estimate the brain age of over 7,000 participants.

The study found that having a brain age older than actual chronological age by 10 years was associated with an 39% higher future risk of dementia. These findings suggest that brain age, assessed based on sleep-EEG patterns, could be potentially used to screen individuals for dementia in the future.

A recent study published in JAMA Network Open used a machine learning model to estimate brain age from complex sleep brain wave patterns obtained from over 7,000 participants. It found that more rapid brain aging relative to actual chronological age was associated with an increased risk of dementia .