Affiliation:
1. Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazi
2. University of Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract
Dementia affects millions of people around the world each year. At this moment, 55.2 million people are living with dementia in the world, with an estimated social cost of US$1.3 trillion. Dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia was ranked as the 7th leading cause of death. One of the risk factors for developing neurodegenerative disorders is sleep disorders. Scientific evidence shows that sleep impairment accelerates cognitive decline by up to three years. Taken together, a better understanding of age-related changes in sleep architecture, their potential impact on cognition, and their underlying mechanisms are essential to developing an efficient treatment of sleep disorders in older people, serving as a promising target for dementia prevention. This chapter will discuss sleep changes and sleep disorders that are predictors of cognitive decline in aging, explaining the pathophysiological mechanisms, and pointing out the gaps that still need to be answered in this area through future research perspectives.