Sleep and neurocognitive performance in middle-aged Latina women in a rural agricultural community: insights from the CHAMACOS Maternal Cognition Study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the connection between sleep measures and neurocognitive function among middle-aged Latinas in rural settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2022-2024 CHAMACOS Maternal Cognition study of middle-aged (mean age: 49) Latinas (n = 500) residing in a rural agricultural community in California. We measured nightly sleep duration, sleep quality, and weekly nap frequency via self-report. Participants completed the SOL-INCA-AD neurocognitive battery, yielding global and domain-specific (memory, executive function, verbal fluency) cognitive z-scores. We estimated associations between sleep measures and cognitive scores controlling for socio-demographic and health-related covariates. RESULTS: Participants averaged 8.5 hours of sleep per night. Overall, 65% of participants reported no naps, 22% 1-2 naps, and 13% 3+ naps per week; 21% reported "restless or very restless sleep." There was an inverted U-shaped association between sleep duration and memory z-scores (linear 𝛽: 0.45, SE: 0.20; quadratic 𝛽: -0.03, SE: 0.01), but no statistically significant associations with other cognitive scores. Reporting 1-2 weekly naps (vs. none) was associated with higher memory (𝛽: 0.21, SE: 0.10) and lower verbal fluency (𝛽: -0.18, SE: 0.09) z-scores, but no statistically significant association with executive function or global z-scores. Reporting 3+ weekly naps (vs. none) was associated with lower memory z-scores (𝛽: -0.30, SE: 0.12). We observed no statistically significant associations between sleep quality and neurocognitive scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest the importance of sleep as a modifiable factor for ADRDs risk reduction among US Latinos and provide a foundation for longitudinal research on sleep and cognitive decline.