A non-invasive sleep test may be able to help diagnose and predict dementia in older adults, a new study suggests. Dementia patients monitored in their sleep had much higher scores than non-dementia patients and showed signs of neurological decline. For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, the team created a model called the Brain Age Index. With aging and neurodegenerative disease, sleep becomes more fragmented and there is less slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Dementia patients had an average BAI score of between four and five compared to the non-dementia patients who had an average score of less than one.

Source: Daily Mail September 28, 2020 15:01 UTC