2026 Critical Care Congress Skip to main content
2026 Critical Care Congress Main banner
Final Program


Advance Program
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Session Icons
Thought Leader Session
Thought Leader Session
Guidelines Session
Guidelines Session
Aging Adult Track
Aging Adult Track
Additional Registration Fee
Additional Registration Fee

Research Snapshot Theater: Geriatric Patients in the ICU, Adult

Sleep Architecture, Patient-Reported Symptoms, and Working Memory in Older Adult ICU Survivors

Tuesday, March 24, 2026
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Central Time
Location: Connections Central - RST 03
Introduction: Sleep-wake disturbances can exacerbate delirium and cognitive impairment in older adults recovering from critical illness. Advancements in wearable sleep technology provide innovative opportunities for understanding relationships between sleep quality and cognitive function. Leveraging portable polysomnography and actigraphy, we explored associations between nighttime sleep architecture, nighttime activity, and working memory in older adult intensive care unit (ICU) survivors.


Methods: We analyzed data from a subset of 11 English- or Spanish-speaking older adult ICU survivors (mean age: 75.7 ± 6.3 years) who consented to wearable sleep technology after ICU discharge to a post-ICU unit. Portable polysomnography measured time spent in each sleep stage (NREM sleep stages N1, N2, and N3; and REM sleep), and wrist actigraphy measured nighttime activity (activity counts/minute) over two consecutive nights (10:00 PM to 06:00 AM). Working memory was assessed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox Cognition Battery List Sorting Test fully-corrected T score. Selected covariates included patient-reported symptoms of sleep and cognitive function, as assessed by Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Sleep-Related Impairment and Cognitive Function T scores. Multiple regression models examined associations between nighttime sleep, nighttime activity, and working memory with adjustment for covariates.


Results: Greater time spent in NREM sleep stages (β = 0.58, p = .03) and less sleep-related impairment (β = -0.881, p = .019) were associated with better working memory scores (R² = .688, p = .035). Higher nighttime activity counts (β = -0.582, p = .043) were associated with worse working memory scores (R² = .657, p = .047).


Conclusions: Our findings suggest that preserving deeper stages of sleep and minimizing nighttime disturbances may be potentially modifiable targets to support cognitive recovery after critical illness. Wearable sleep technology could facilitate early identification of older adult ICU survivors at risk for cognitive decline and enable the development of personalized clinical interventions. Future studies are warranted to test the efficacy of sleep promotion interventions on long-term cognitive outcomes in this complex population.