Research Brief
Sleep and Cognitive Decline
July 25, 2019
Disturbed sleep is common among older adults and may lead to cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Carol A. Derby, Ph.D., has received a four-year, $4 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to partner with the ongoing Einstein Aging Study to examine the association between sleep patterns and cognition in 500 older adults living in the Bronx. The grant is a collaboration with Pennsylvania State University professor Orfeu Buxton, Ph.D. Using smartphones, Einstein Aging Study participants use smartphones to take surveys and tests several times a day for two weeks a year to assess their cognition. In Dr. Derby’s project, those participants will also wear a special watch to collect daily information on sleep and wear device to measure overnight oxygen levels. The data will help reveal sleep’s short-term and long-term impact on cognition, potentially leading to strategies for preventing cognitive decline. Dr. Derby is a research professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology and in the department of epidemiology & population health and is the Louis and Gertrude Feil Faculty Scholar in Neurology at Einstein.(1R01AG062622-01)