Alzheimer’s Disease :: Behavior approach helps Alzheimer’s patients sleep

Behavioral techniques that are known to improve sleep in non-demented institutionalized older adults may benefit patients with Alzheimer’s disease who have nighttime insomnia, according to the findings of a small study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Dr. Susan M. McCurry and colleagues from the University of Washington, Seattle, examined whether a comprehensive sleep education program — dubbed Nighttime Insomnia Treatment and Education for Alzheimer’s Disease (NITE-AD) — could improve sleep in Alzheimer’s disease patients living at home with family caregivers. A total of 36 patients and their caregivers were included in the study.

All subjects received handouts describing age- and dementia-related changes in sleep and principles of good sleep hygiene.

Patients in the NITE-AD group spent an average of 36 minutes less time awake at night — a 32-percent reduction from the start of the study — and had 5.3 fewer nightly awakenings — also a 32-percent reduction from the start of the study — than control subjects, McCurry’s team reports.

Depression levels were also significantly lower in NITE-AD patients and they had lower ratings of daytime sleepiness than control subjects after accounting for level of mental functioning.


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