Sleep trouble is a huge part of Alzheimer's disease. It is not only people suffering from Alzheimer's disease that have trouble sleeping, but their caregivers have trouble finding the time to get enough sleep for themselves. This leads to all the problems of insomnia and sleep deprivation for both Alzheimer's disease patient and caregiver.

A study of 44 adults with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers examined the impact of different factors and sleep. Researchers collected information about the total minutes of sleep, percent of time spent asleep, total time awake at night, daytime sleep and other factors. What they found was that Alzheimer's patients generally went to sleep at the same time each day, but the amount of sleep each night varied greatly. For Alzheimer's caregivers the most unstable aspect of their sleep was the total time spent in bed. In general at least 25% of the time either the Alzheimer's patient or the caregiver had a poor night of sleep.

What can help?

Anything that can strengthen your sleep habits will help whether you are a caregiver or person with Alzheimer's. Developing good "sleep hygiene" edition marks and strong sleep habits will help keep you sleeping when you the chance, fall asleep faster, and improve the quality of your sleep.

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