Sleep Disturbances Among Patients with Dementia

As of the year 2000, approximately 4 million Americans had Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and it is projected that more than 14 million will have AD by the year 2050.1 As this population grows, increasing efforts must be made to improve quality of life, including improving sleep in these patients. Objective measurements of sleep in patients with dementia have shown increased sleep fragmentation, longer sleep onset latency, decreased sleep efficiency, decreased total sleep time, and decreased slow wave sleep.2 In addition, those with more severe dementia appear to have more severe sleep disrupt...