Sleep experiences during different lifetime periods and in vivo Alzheimer pathologies

BACKGROUND: Very little is known for the direction or causality of the relationship between lifetime sleep experiences and in vivo Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathologies. This study aimed to examine the relationship between sleep experiences during the young adulthood, midlife, and late-life periods and in vivo cerebral beta-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and AD signature regional neurodegeneration in cognitively normal (CN) old adults. METHODS: This study included 202 CN old adults who participated in the Korean Brain Aging Study for the Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer’s Disease (KBASE) study. All participants underwent a comprehensive clinical assessment, [(11)C] Pittsburgh Compound B positron emission tomography (PET), [(18)F] Fluorodeoxyglucose-PET, and magnetic resonance imaging. The quality and duration of sleep were assessed for the following age periods: 20–30s, 40–50s, and the most recent month. All analyses were adjusted for age, gender, education, apolipoprotein E ε4 status, vascular risk score, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score, and use of sleep medication. RESULTS: Bad sleep quality and short sleep duration during midlife were significantly associated with increased Aβ deposition and AD signature regional hypometabolism, respectively. Although current bad sleep quality appeared to be associated with increased Aβ accumulation, this association disappeared after controlling for the effects of midlife sleep quality. Neither the quality nor duration of sleep during young adulthood was related to Aβ burden or neurodegeneration. CONCLUSIONS: Bad sleep quality during midlife increases pathological Aβ deposition in the brain, while short sleep duration during the same period accelerates regional hypometabolism. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13195-019-0536-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.