FRIDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- There's a significant
difference in sleep disturbances experienced by Alzheimer's disease
patients and the sleep woes of their caregivers, new research
shows.
A team from the University of Washington, in Seattle, found that
poor sleep in either a patient or caregiver aren't always
connected.
The researchers studied 44 older adults, aged 63 to 93, with
probable or possible Alzheimer's disease and their adult family
caregivers, aged 21 to 87. One week of sleep-wake activity for the
patients and caregivers was measured using a wrist-movement
recorder.
Total minutes of nighttime sleep, percentage of time spent
asleep, number of awakenings, duration of time awake at night,
total daytime sleep, and circadian rest-activity variables were
among the areas analyzed by the researchers. They also evaluated
the participants for mood, physical function, medication use,
caregiver behavior management style and patient cognitive
status.
Among patients, the most stable aspect of sleep was time of
night they went to bed, while the least stable aspect was total
hours of sleep per night. For caregivers, the greatest stability
was total wake time at night, while the least stable aspect was
time in bed.
The study also found there was a sizable number (25 percent to
41 percent) of patient-caregiver duos on any given night where one
person slept well while the other slept poorly. In some cases, the
poor sleeper was the caregiver.
Instances where both the patient and caregiver slept poorly over
seven nights were more likely to involve patients who had a lower
level of physical function, more severe dementia, and required more
sleep medications.
"Factors that we might expect would explain much of the
relationship between patient and caregiver sleep, such as sharing a
room at night, were not significant predictors of outcome," study
author Susan M. McCurry said in a prepared statement.
"Understanding the complex inter-relationship of sleep in
Alzheimer's disease patients and caregivers is an important first
step towards the development of individualized and effective
treatment strategies."
The study is published in the May 1 issue of
Sleep.
More information
The Alzheimer's Association tells caregivers how they can
take care of themselves.
