0344 Age-Related Longitudinal Trajectories in NREM and REM Spectral Power

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Knowledge of how aging impacts sleep physiology is based almost exclusively on cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies, by contrast, can inform how macro- and micro-features of NREM and REM sleep change dynamically across time in individual trajectories. For the current work, we conducted quantitative EEG analyses from a longitudinal polysomnography study to inform age-related trajectories in sleep macro- and micro-architecture. Methods We conducted a secondary data analysis on 2208 participants in the Sleep Heart Health Study (mean age =62.47, SD=10.46, 55.30% females). Participants underwent one night of in-home polysomnography recording during two study visits (M=5.21 years apart, SD=0.53). Spectral power density was calculated for each 0.5 Hz frequency bin for NREM and REM sleep separately. Results In cross-sectional analyses, older chronological age was significantly associated with worse sleep macro-architecture. Plots of the individual trajectories over 5 years, however, revealed considerable inter-individual variability in whether sleep physiology was preserved or declined. Interestingly, there were strong associations between the longitudinal changes in power density in NREM and REM sleep (slow oscillations: r=.53 [.50-.56]; delta: r=.58 [.55-.60]; alpha: r=.69 [.67-.71]; sigma: r=.74 [.73-.76]; beta: r=.82 [.80-.83]; ps<.001). The strongest NREM-REM association was for theta band power (r=.85 [.83-.86]), particularly in the 5.5-6.0 Hz bin (r=.94, [.94, .95]). Conclusion There is substantial inter-individual variability in how aging impacts sleep physiology. Nevertheless, within individuals, power density declines similarly across NREM and REM stages, with nearly perfect convergence for theta activity, indicating a common age-related neurobiological mechanism. Support The National Sleep Research Resource is supported by NIH HL114473.