Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Review Article

Poor Sleep as a Precursor to Cognitive Decline in Down Syndrome : A Hypothesis

Fabian Fernandez^1* and Jamie O Edgin²

¹Department of Physiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

²Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Program, Sonoran University, Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Corresponding Author:

Fabian Fernandez
PhD, Department of Physiology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Biophysics 203, 725 N. Wolfe St
Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Tel: +1410955-6624
Fax: +14432870508
E-mail: ffernan6@jhmi.edu

Received date: August 03, 2013; Accepted date: August 19, 2013; Published date: August 26, 2013

Citation: Fernandez F, Edgin JO (2013) Poor Sleep as a Precursor to Cognitive Decline in Down Syndrome: A Hypothesis. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 3:124. doi:10.4172/2161-0460.1000124

Copyright: © 2013 Fernandez F, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

We propose that sleep disruption is a lever arm that influences how cognition emerges in development and then declines in response to Alzheimer disease in people with Down syndrome. Addressing sleep disruptions might be an overlooked way to improve cognitive outcomes in this population. This article is a contribution to a Special Issue on Down Syndrome curated by the editors of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Parkinsonism.