Sleep, circadian rhythms and memory processes in the elderly

Journal title RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA
Author/s Carlo Cipolli, Giovanni Tuozzi
Publishing Year 2013 Issue 2012/2-3
Language Italian Pages 17 P. 369-385 File size 474 KB
DOI 10.3280/RIP2012-002015
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Aging is characterized by several changes in the sleep quality and architecture. The main changes are a measurable decrease in the ability to initiate and maintain sleep, a decrease in the proportion of the deeper, more restorative slow-wave sleep and REM sleep, an increased diurnal sleepiness and an altered circadian cycle of wake-sleep. These changes per se, or in association with specific sleep disorders, are often accompanied by impairments in cognitive functions, overall declarative and non-declarative memory. Some strategies based on behavioural techniques have proved to be fairly effective - per se or in association with chrono-, photo- or pharmacological therapies- to maintain or recover the sleep organization and the circadian rhythm of wake-sleep and, in turn, the cognitive functioning in home- and (overall) community-dwelling elderly.

Keywords: Sleep, circadian rhythms, declarative and non-declarative memory, sleep hygiene.

  1. Alchanatis, M., Zias, N., Deligiorgis, N., Liappas, I., Chroneou, A., Soldatos, C., & Roussos, C. (2008). Comparison of cognitive performance among different age groups in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep and Breathing, 12, 17-24
  2. Aly, M., & Moscovitch, M. (2010). The effects of sleep on episodic memory in older and younger adults. Memory, 18, 327-334.
  3. Backhaus, J., Born, J., Hoeckesfeld, R., Fokuhl, S., Hohagen, F., & Junghanns, K. (2007). Midlife decline in declarative memory consolidation is correlated with a decline in slow wave sleep. Learning & Memory, 14, 336-341
  4. Bloom, H., Ahmed, I., Alessi, C.A., Ancoli-Israel, S., Buysse, D.J., Kryger, M. H., Phillips, B., Thorpy, M., Vitiello, M., & Zee, P.C. (2009). Evidence-based recommendations for the assessment and management of sleep disorders in older persons. Journal of American Geriatric Society, 57, 761-789
  5. Buysse, D.J., Reynolds, C.F., Monk, T.H., Berman, S.R., & Kupfer, D.J. (1989). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Research, 28, 193-213.
  6. Cajochen, C., Munch, M., Knoblauch, V., Blatter, K., & Wirz-Justice, A. (2006). Age-related changes in the circadian and homeostatic regulation of human sleep. Chronobiology International, 23, 461-474.
  7. Chong, M.S., Ayalon, L., Marler, M., Loredo, J.S., Corey-Bloom, J., Palmer, B. W., Liu, L., & Ancoli-Israel, S. (2006). Continuous positive airway pressure reduces subjective daytime sleepiness in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease with sleep disordered breathing. Journal of American Geriatric Society, 54, 777-781.
  8. Cooke, J.R., & Ancoli-Israel, S. (2011). Normal and abnormal sleep in the elderly. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 98, 653-665
  9. Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neurosicence, 11, 114-126.
  10. Fagioli, I., & Salzarulo, P. (1995). Psicologia e fisiologia del sonno. In S. Sirigatti (ed.). Manuale di psicologia generale (pp. 97-154). Torino: UTET
  11. Ferini-Strambi, L., Baietto, C., Di Gioia, M.R., Castaldi, P., Castronovo, C., Zucconi, M., & Cappa, S.F. (2003). Cognitive dysfunction in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): partial reversibility after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Brain Research Bulletin, 61, 87-92.
  12. Ferrie, J., Shipley, M., Akbaraly, T., Marmot, M., Kivimäki, M., & Singh-Manoux, A. (2011). Change in sleep duration and cognitive function: findings from the Whitehall II Study. Sleep, 34, 565-573.
  13. Fetveit, A., & Bjorvatn, B. (2002). Sleep disturbances among nursing home residents. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17, 604-609
  14. Ficca, G., & Salzarulo, P. (2004). What in sleep is for memory. Sleep Medicine, 5, 225-230.
  15. Flick, U., Garms-Homolova, V., & Ronnsch, G. (2010). “When they sleep, they sleep”. Daytime activities and sleep disorders in nursing homes. Journal of Health Psychology, 15, 755-764.
  16. Foley, D., Monjan, A., Masaki, K., Ross, W., Havlik, R., White, L., & Launer, L. (2001). Daytime sleepiness is associated with 3-year incident dementia and cognitive decline in older Japanese-American men. Journal of American Geriatric Society, 49, 1628-1632.
  17. Fox, M.T., Sidani, S., & Brooks, D. (2010). Differences in sleep complaints in adults with varying levels of bed days residing in extended care facilities for chronic disease management. Clinical Nursing Research, 19, 181-202.
  18. Fulda, S., & Schulz, H. (2010). How treatment affects cognitive deficits in patients with sleep disorders: methodological commonalities and interrelationships. Progress in Brain Research, 185, 69-90
  19. Hornung, O.P., Regen, F., Schredl, M., Heuser, I., & Danker-Hopfe, H. (2006). Manipulating REM sleep in older adults by selective REM sleep deprivation and physiological as well as pharmacological REM sleep augmentation methods. Experimental Neurology, 197, 486-494
  20. Jonelis, M.B., Drummond, S.P., Salamat, J.S., McKenna, B.S., Ancoli-Israel, S., & Bondi, M.W. (2012). Age-related influences of prior sleep on brain activation during verbal encoding. Frontiers in Neurology, 3, 49.
  21. Keage, H., Banks, S., Yang, K.L., Morgan, K., Brayne, C., & Matthews, F.E. (2012). What sleep characteristics predict cognitive decline in the elderly? Sleep Medicine, 13, 886-892
  22. Martin, J.L., Webber, A.P., Alam, T., Harker, J.O., Josephson, K.R., & Alessi, C. A. (2006). Daytime sleeping, sleep disturbance, and circadian rhythms in the nursing home. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14, 121-129.
  23. Mazzoni, G., Gori, S., Formicola, G., Gneri, C., Massetani, R., Murri, L., & Salzarulo, P. (1999). Word recall correlates with sleep cycles in elderly subjects. Journal of Sleep Research, 8, 185-188
  24. Monk, T.H. (2010). Enhancing circadian zeitgebers. Sleep, 33, 421-422
  25. Naylor, E., Penev, P.D., Orbeta, L., Janssen, I., Ortiz, R., Colecchia, E., Keng, M., Finkel, S., & Zee, P.C. (2000). Daily social and physical activity increases slow-wave sleep and daytime neuropsychological performance in the elderly. Sleep, 23, 87-95.
  26. Neikrug, A.B., & Ancoli-Israel, S. (2010). Sleep disorders in the older adult: a mini-review. Gerontology, 56, 181-189.
  27. Ohayon, M.M., & Vecchierini, M.F. (2005). Normative sleep data, cognitive function and daily living activities in older adults in the community. Sleep, 28, 981-989.
  28. Pivik, T., & Foulkes, D. (1968). NREM mentation: relation to personality, orientation time, and time of night. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 32, 144-151.
  29. Rausch, G., Schabus, M., Parapactis, S., Bertran, F., Clochon, P., Hot, P., Denise, P., Desgranges, B., Eustache, F., Gruber, G., & Anderer, P. (2008). Is there a link between sleep changes and memory in Alzheimer’s disease? Neuroreport, 19, 1159-1162
  30. Rechtschaffen, A., & Kales, A. (1968). A manual of standardized terminology techniques and scoring system for sleep stages of human subjects. Publ. Health Service. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington (D.C.).
  31. Rogers, N., & Dinges, D. (2008). Interaction of chronic sleep restriction and circadian system in humans. Journal of Sleep Research, 17, 406-411
  32. Schredl, M., Weber, B., Leins, M.L., & Heuser, I. (2001). Donepezil-induced REM sleep augmentation enhances memory performance in elderly, healthy persons. Experimental Gerontology, 36, 353-361
  33. Song, S., Howard, J.H., & Howard, D.V. (2007). Sleep does not benefit probabilistic motor sequence learning. Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 12475-1283
  34. Spencer, R.M., Gouw, A.M., & Ivry, R. (2007). Age-related decline of sleep-dependent consolidation. Learning & Memory,14, 480-484.
  35. Takahashi, M. (2003). The role of prescribed napping in sleep medicine. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 7, 227-235
  36. Tucker, M., McKinley, S., & Stickgold, R. (2011). Sleep optimizes motor skill in older adults. Journal of American Geriatric Society, 59, 603-609.
  37. Vaz Fragoso, C.A., & Gill, T.M. (2007). Sleep complaints in community-living older persons: a multifactorial geriatric syndrome. Journal of American Geriatric Society, 55, 1853-1866
  38. Wilson, J.K., Baran, B., Pace-Schott, E., Ivry, R., & Spencer, R.M. (2012). Sleep modulates word-pair learning but not motor sequence learning in healthy older adults. Neurobiology of Aging, 33, 991-1000
  39. Zimmerman, M.E., Arnedt, J.T., Stanchina, M., Millman, R.P., & Aloia, M.S. (2006). Normalization of memory performance and positive airway pressure adherence in memory-impaired patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Chest, 130, 1772-1778
  40. Zisberg, A., Gur-Yaish, N., & Shochat, T. (2010). Contribution of routine to sleep quality in community elderly. Sleep, 33, 509-14.

Carlo Cipolli, Giovanni Tuozzi, Sonno, ritmi circadiani e processi di memoria nell’anziano in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 2-3/2012, pp 369-385, DOI: 10.3280/RIP2012-002015