Sleep Slow-Wave Activity as a Potential Vulnerability and Modifiable Risk Factor in Older Black Adults: Examining the Relationship from Chronic Stress to Accelerated Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

If you agree to join the study, you will be asked to complete the following research procedures. There will be a virtual screening visit that will take approximately 2 hours to complete. During this visit, all of the study procedures will be described to you in detail, you will have the opportunity to ask questions and sign the consent form as long as you understand it and if you are comfortable with continuing in the study. After you sign the consent form, you will be asked to complete some questionnaires and have a clinical interview during which you will be asked questions about your health, thoughts, and feelings. You will then have your sleep monitored at home. You will receive a portable sleep monitoring device to wear in your home while you sleep for one night to determine if you have any sleep disorders.  You will also receive sleep diaries to complete at home, which take about 5 minutes twice each day. Furthermore, your activity patterns at home will be monitored by a small device worn on your wrist called a “wrist actigraph”.  You will be asked to fill out the sleep diaries and to wear the wrist actigraph during the subsequent 7 days, and then either return all sleep recording equipment to us in person or mail it to us in a pre-paid envelope. If there is evidence of sleep disorders from this monitoring, you will not be able to continue participating in the study. If there is no evidence of sleep disorders, the last step will be a sleep study that will be in your home. Study staff will work with you to schedule your in-home sleep study. In the evening of your sleep study they will come to your home and have you complete some questionnaires, and some computer tests. They will then place wires on your head, face, and body to monitor your sleep. In the morning, staff will return to remove the wires, take your vital signs, and perform a blood draw. Once this is completed, the study team will leave. For some individuals, you will be asked if you want to participate in a 2-year follow-up. If you agree, the study team will come back two years later to repeat the home portion of the study. Your participation is over once you have completed the in-home portion of the study (or the optional second in-home visit).