PreciseSLEEP: Automated Home-Based Sleep Assessment of Patients Living With Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment at University of East Anglia on FindAPhD.com

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Dr A Lazar No more applications being accepted Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Norwich United Kingdom Health Psychology Machine Learning Medical Statistics Neurology Neuropsychology Neuroscience Biological Sciences Medicine Psychology Statistics

About the Project

Sleep disturbances are particularly common in people living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, and current evidence points to a bidirectional link between sleep disturbances and neurodegeneration. Assessment of sleep disturbances and daytime sleepiness is most commonly based on self- or carer reports or actigraphy. These assessment tools have limited validity in characterizing the true sleep features (e.g. reported sleep quality is often confounded by memory, mental health, and/or self-insight problems). Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard method of sleep assessment that can provide a reliable and detailed insight into the objective sleep and vigilance profile of the patient. However, PSG is an expensive technology run by sleep specialists most commonly in a clinical sleep laboratory setting which is known to affect sleep and is not suitable for patients with MCI and dementia.

The proposed PhD project aims to tackle this problem by combining the accuracy of PSG in detecting sleep and vigilance with the feasibility of a home-based sleep tracking technology coupled with automated analysis. The PhD project will aim to trial a novel but validated technology allowing for a high precision home-based assessment of gold standard objective sleep and vigilance features in patients with MCI and dementia. This approach will allow to accurately measure the clinical efficacy of interventions targeting sleep quality improvements and further optimize sleep biomarkers of cognitive decline and mental health, and the neurodegenerative disease process in dementia. The study will involve mixed methods.

The PhD project will be based in the Sleep and Brain Research Unit under the supervision of Dr Lazar and Prof Fox.

This is an outstanding opportunity for strong and motivated candidates interested to pursue research related to sleep, ageing, cognition, and dementia. Interested students can have a background in *any* relevant subject (for example Psychology, Medicine, and Computer/Cognitive Science).

Funding Notes

This PhD project is a Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences competition for funded studentships. The studentships are funded for 3 years and comprise UK tuition fees, an annual stipend of £15,609 (2021/22 rate) and £1,000 per annum to support research training. International applicants (including EU) may apply but are required to fund the difference between UK and International tuition fees (details of tuition fees can be found on our website https://www.uea.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/fees).

References

i) Richardson K, Savva GM, Boyd PJ, Aldus C, Maidment I, Pakpahan E, Loke YK, Arthur A, Steel N, Ballard C, Howard R, Fox C. Non-benzodiazepine hypnotic use for sleep disturbance in people aged over 55 years living with dementia: a series of cohort studies. Health Technol Assess. 2021 Jan;25(1):1-202.
ii) Voysey ZJ, Barker RA, Lazar AS. The Treatment of Sleep Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Disorders. Neurotherapeutics. 2021 Jan;18(1):202-216.
iii) Santhi N, Lazar AS, McCabe PJ, Lo JC, Groeger JA, Dijk DJ. Sex differences in the circadian regulation of sleep and waking cognition in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 May 10;113(19):E2730-9.
iv) Lazar AS, Panin F, Goodman AO, Lazic SE, Lazar ZI, Mason SL, Rogers L, Murgatroyd PR, Watson LP, Singh P, Borowsky B, Shneerson JM, Barker RA Sleep deficits but no metabolic deficits in premanifest Huntington's disease. Ann Neurol. 2015 Oct;78(4):630-48.
v) Videnovic A, Lazar AS, Barker RA, Overeem S. 'The clocks that time us'--circadian rhythms in neurodegenerative disorders. Nat Rev Neurol. 2014 Dec;10(12):683-93

Where will I study?

University of East Anglia

We’re one of the UK’s leading research institutions, ranked 10th in the UK for the quality of our research outputs and with more than 1,500 research students.