ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Dementia is characterized by a global decline in cognitive abilities that results in an impairment of performance of previously learned activities of daily living. The types of dementias can be categorized according to clinical presentation, neuropathology, and etiology. Although sleep disturbances are common in older adults compared with younger adults, sleep is much more disturbed in persons with dementia (1-3). Nineteen to forty-four percent of community-dwelling persons with dementia have some form of sleep disturbance (4-6). Many disorders causing dementia result in degenerative changes in regions of the brain involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness. A pattern common to all dementias includes sleep fragmentation and disruption of the sleep-wake cycle. Sleep disturbances have serious consequences such as increased aggression, daytime cognitive impairment, falls, and institutionalization (7-11). Sleep disturbances mirror the severity of dementia and may even accelerate cognitive and functional decline (12,13). Sleep disturbances increase caregiver burden and interrupt caregivers’ sleep, which might also result in institutionalization (14).
