Preprint · Apr 30, 2026
Sleep Health, Hearing Loss, and Cognitive Ageing in Older Adults: Integrating UK Biobank Analysis with 14-Day Daily-Life Monitoring
By Zhou X, Zhao IY
The present study combines a population-scale analysis of the UK Biobank with a 14-day daily-life monitoring study on older adults. Fourteen days was selected because a two-week window is widely used in diary and ecological momentary assessment research to capture stable estimates of everyday functioning and within-person fluctuations (Hyun et al., 2022), while also covering two full weekday–weekend cycles. The UK Biobank component will examine whether sleep health and auditory function, including both peripheral hearing sensitivity and speech-in-noise processing, independently and jointly predict longitudinal cognitive change. The 14-day monitoring component will extend this work by examining how nightly sleep and sleep regularity relate to next-day functioning in everyday life, including cognitive readiness, listening-related fatigue, and social engagement. Together, these two components aim to address the research questions as below.