Sleep in Normal Aging, Alzheimer's Disease, and Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of sleep disturbances in normal aging, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and mild cognitive impairment. We focus on the main sleep changes reported in these three conditions, namely, sleep problems (insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, and sleep-disordered breathing), characteristics of sleep architecture and microstructure, and sleep quantitative electroencephalography. We also present recent evidence on the association between sleep alterations in cognitively intact individuals and the risk for developing cognitive impairment, more specifically AD, and the bidirectional relationships between disturbed sleep and AD pathophysiology.