More than 40% of individuals as young as 60 start to experience some sort of cognitive decline. Among these, nearly one person in five develops mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a potential precursor of severe neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and dementia. Nothing can be done to cure or slow down them and drug development has failed so far – big pharma companies are quitting research in this field. Notwithstanding, life expectancy is rising. By 2050 the number of dementia cases will triple, and 13.2 million Americans will live with AD. Therefore, finding alternative interventions to slow down cognitive decline is an urgent priority and a necessary answer to an unmet need. Age-related decline in memory performance has been linked to the age-related reduction of deep sleep, or Slow Wave sleep (SWS). Interestingly, this represents a modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline.

Deepwave is proposing the first wearable for cognitive training based on improvement of sleep quality that will reduce the societal burden in elderly care, and in the long term may represent an effective treatment for neurodegenerative diseases.