As people age, we all know that several bodies’ biological activities also get affected. We talk about reaction time, sensory processing, attention, memory, reasoning, and executive functioning. This is in addition to insomnia and sleep-disordered breathing.

Let us explore the correlation between sleep and old age. Sleep has demonstrated consistent age-related changes due to developmental maturation. Sadly not much is known regarding sleep’s relationship to late-life cognitive functioning. However, experts from Southwest University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Psychology have news for you.

They will tell you that efficient connectivity of the brain’s inactive state envisages the act of intellectual functions in elderlies. This was concluded from comprehensive research and study carried out by a team from the University and under the leadership of Key Laboratory of Mental health expert Jing Yu.

Predicting and Determining the Cognitive Function in Older Adults

The study engaged over 100 healthy subjects who are of the older adult age group. During the course of the study, the experts assessed the sleeping patterns of the subjects by letting them fill out questionnaires. Part of the information required included sleep instabilities, superiority, customary efficiency, medications, and daytime dysfunction in addition to MRI Scans. The scans would provide an entire perception of their neurological tissues, and the results helped decide and forecast on their cognitive function.

From the results, the dynamic functional network connectivity (FNC) in a person could genuinely predict the presentation of their cognitive function. With this discovery, the study’s authors hope interventions over cognitive-related disorders, both mild and severe. It is also likely that the same results would pave the way for the upcoming neurological studies linked with aging.

The results are also expected to play a significant role in developing therapeutic and treatment approaches over the cognitive deficit in older adults. The study is currently available in the journal Neuroscience, titled “Sleep Quality Modulates the Association between Dynamic Functional Network Connectivity and Cognitive Function in Healthy Older Adults.”

All said and done; older adults are at an increased risk of insomnia. Nonetheless, researchers are still at work trying to understand the role of insomnia in predicting cognitive functioning.