Sunnybrook researcher awarded grant to study how sleep may ward off Alzheimer’s disease

Dr. Andrew Lim, neurologist and scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, has been awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Operating Grant for his project: Integrating Sleep Wearables, Brain Imaging, and Blood Biomarkers to Understand how Healthy Sleep Confers Resistance and Resilience to Alzheimer's Disease Related Brain Changes.

The project, which aims to explore which dimensions of healthy sleep contribute to resistance and resilience of Alzheimer's disease, was awarded $749,458 of funding from CIHR as part of their Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment in Aging (BHCIA) Research Initiative. The grant program is designed to advance our understanding about risk reduction and protective factors involved in promoting cognitive health and mitigating the changes that occur in the onset and progression of cognitive impairment and dementia in aging.

The three-year project will study 2600 older adults participating in the ongoing Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging, a national study of the chronic conditions of aging. It will relate detailed measurements of sleep brain wave activity (collected via a soft headband and smart watch) to cognitive testing, brain scans and blood markers of brain pathology and brain inflammation to better understand how healthy sleep contributes to resistance and resilience to Alzheimer's disease related brain changes.

The research team hopes the results will lay the foundation for new sleep- and brain inflammation-based approaches to preventing Alzheimer's disease, potentially impacting the lives of the millions of Canadians at risk for dementia.