Dementia and Insomnia

Angie SzumlinskiNews

Sleep disturbances are common issues for people living with dementia. This can be in the form of general insomnia, shortened sleep cycles, frequent awakening during the night, daytime napping, and reduced rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Approximately 44% of patients living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have sleep disturbance, and that number rises to 90% for those with dementia with Lewy Bodies or Parkinson’s disease dementia. 

These sleep disturbances may cause problems related to irritability, attention, motivation, and cognition, which impact the quality of life for both the patients and their caregivers. Add to that, studies have shown sleep deprivation is often associated with an increased risk of falls, wow, the perfect storm! Another study concluded that sleep initiation insomnia (when you lay awake for more than 30 minutes before falling asleep) and sleep medication use (we don’t use hypnotics in our centers anymore, right?) increase a persons risk for developing dementia.  

However, for those of us “light sleepers,” you know who you are, waking up several times a night with “disturbed sleep,” actually enjoy a lower risk of developing dementia, go figure! When was the last time you talked to your evening and midnight staff about residents with sleep disturbances, behaviors, falls, etc.? Have you looked at your fall log recently to determine if there are residents who have trouble falling asleep and are experiencing falls? How about behaviors? Remember, there is always a root cause for anti-social behaviors, it may take some work to identify, but maybe it is simply a sleep issue? Time to pull out the QAPI pad and take some notes, talk to your staff and residents, ask the pertinent questions, document and add it to your next QAPI agenda! Stay well and stay informed!