# Evaluating Sleep Deficiency in Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias

> **NIH NIH K76** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $217,401

## Abstract

Project Summary
Sleep deficiency – defined here as an impairment in sleep duration, architecture, and/or circadian timing – is
estimated to be present in up to 70% of persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). In this
population, sleep deficiency is associated with adverse outcomes, including further cognitive and functional
decline, increasing the urgency for accessible tools measuring sleep and circadian timing across the continuum
of pre-clinical and clinical phases of ADRD. To advance our understanding of the link between sleep and
neurocognitive function in ADRD, feasible, accurate, and comprehensive tools that measure sleep architecture
and circadian sleep timing are needed. In addition, there is a paucity of information on the bidirectional
relationships between sleep deficiency, biomarkers of neuronal damage and plasticity, and ADRD pathological
proteins among persons with ADRD. Elucidating these relationships using measures of sleep architecture and
timing would advance mechanistic work and inform interventions to slow progression of ADRD.
For my Beeson K76 award, I am evaluating home-based measures of sleep duration, architecture, and circadian
timing over multiple days and nights in persons ≥ 60 years. We use a self-applied electroencephalography
(EEG)-measuring headband (i.e., an EEG-headband) to assess sleep duration and architecture and enhanced
actigraphy measures of circadian sleep timing (e.g., interdaily stability). Now that we have acquired considerable
experience in the use of comprehensive and rigorous measures of sleep deficiency in persons without ADRD,
we propose to extend this work to persons with ADRD. Working with Yale's Alzheimer's Disease Research
Center, we will enroll 45 persons with ADRD to evaluate the performance of the EEG-headband and evaluate
cross-sectional relationships between distinct sleep deficiency domains and serum levels of neuronal damage
and plasticity (brain derived neurotrophic factor, neurofilament light chain) and ADRD pathological proteins (tau,
amyloid-β).
The findings from this work will inform the design of a larger, longitudinal study on causal associations between
sleep deficiency, neuronal damage/plasticity, and ADRD pathology. Ultimately, this work may elucidate
mechanisms, improve prognostication, and establish targets for future sleep-promoting interventions to slow
progression of disease and improve quality of life in persons with ADRD.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10937625
- **Project number:** 3K76AG074905-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** BRIENNE MINER
- **Activity code:** K76 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $217,401
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10937625

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10937625, Evaluating Sleep Deficiency in Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (3K76AG074905-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10937625. Licensed CC0.

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