Sleep Disturbance in Elderly Caregivers of Dementia Patients

Although it has been widely reported in the clinical literature that sleep disturbanceis a signifcant problem among dementia caregivers, there has been little research to document this phenomenon or to clarify its correlates in a caregiving population. The current study examined interview and self-report data available on 136 caregivers between the ages of 50 and 89 (48 male, 88 female). Patient interviews and caregiver self-reports provided data on caregiver and patient sleep quality and quantity, depression, and patient cognitive, functional, and behavioral status. Sixty-eight percent of elderly caregivers reported some form of sleep disturbance three or more nights per week during the past month, including problems with sleep initiation (14%), sleep maintenance (51%), and daytime fatigue (34%). Twenty-two percent of caregivers stated that their patient awakened them regularly. Older caregivers reported greater frequency of mid-night awakenings with inability to return to sleep and more daytime naps. Total sleep disturbance was significantly associated with increased caregiver depression, patient depression, patient functional impairment, and caregiver use of nighttime medications (p ≤ .05), even after the potentially confounding effects of age and residence with the patient were removed. In combination, these variables accounted for 41% of the total variance in sleep reports, with caregiver depression alone explaining 27% of the observed variance.