Sleep trackers and AI used to predict early signs of Alzheimer’s

The grant was awarded to Joyita Dutta, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for a five-year study to assess whether wearable sleep trackers can predict blood biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.

Sleep disruption is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, even before cognitive symptoms manifest. However, gold-standard sleep assessments are expensive and usually only provide data from a single night.

With the goal of expanding early Alzheimer’s diagnosis, this study will assess if unobtrusive sleep trackers can log sleep patterns that correlate with future cognitive decline, as indicated by blood biomarkers.

“Many people already wear smartwatches to sleep these days. Imagine receiving an alert from your smartwatch advising you to see a neurologist. That could be the direction we are headed,” Dutta said in a statement.

Her study will evaluate the sleep patterns of people with a genetic predisposition to developing Alzheimer’s disease, but no observable signs of cognitive impairment.