The influence of aging on sleep structure and the REM-NREM sleep cycle

• Applicant: Dr. Peter Geisler
• Subject Area: Biogerontology and Geriatric Medicine
• Term: from 2020 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 453303530

Sleep is a highly organized behavioral state that is regulated by circadian, homeostatic and ultradian processes. The best method available to measure the interaction of these processes is polysomnography (PSG). This method allows to delineate the temporal structure of sleep and the interaction of different electrophysiological variables (electroencephalogram, electrooculogram, electromyogram and other signals such as ECG and respiration). Sleep undergoes significant changes over the life span, which are characterized by a decrease in total sleep time and slow-wave sleep, an increase in sleep interruptions and an increase in shallow sleep. While all of these changes were confirmed by cross-sectional studies, there is only limited evidence for the intrapersonal longitudinal sleep development from young adulthood to old age. The vast majority of PSG-based longitudinal sleep studies cover a period of less than 10 years. The aim of the present study is to retest sleep in a group of normal subjects whose sleep was examined more than 35 years ago when they were young (age range: 20 to 30 years). These subjects are of particular interest because sleep was recorded for 14 consecutive nights or more in each of them. Thus, the intra-individual stability of the various PSG parameters and sleep patterns is known for each person at a young age. Of the 19 subjects in the early sleep study, 13 persons have been contacted so far and agreed to participate in a sleep laboratory follow-up study for 3 consecutive nights. The first night is defined as adaptation night.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Hartmut Schulz; Privatdozent Dr. Thomas-Christian Wetter