Sleep in Adults With Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease

RATIONALE of the project. Adults with Down syndrome (DS) present severe sleep disorders that are under recognized by caregivers. Aging in DS population increases the prevalence of both Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Alzheimer´s disease (AD) dementia at much higher rates than in the general population. AD increases the risk of sleep disturbances and OSA, which in turn worsen cognitive performance and behavioral function. Our hypothesis is that adults with DS and AD dementia will present a higher prevalence of sleep disorders (sleep disruption, sleep circadian disorders and OSA) than in DS without dementia. There are no data evaluating nocturnal sleep in adults with DS with AD dementia. The main objective is to evaluate the prevalence of sleep disturbances in adult subjects with DS and AD dementia, by means of subjective and objectives sleep measures.