The Impact of Living Arrangements on Dementia Caregivers' Sleep Quality

In the United States half of the 15 million informal caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (PWDs) do not live with the PWD. This paper compares the sleep quality and health of 59 community-dwelling caregivers living with the PWD and 21 living apart from the PWD. Variables of interest were caregiving experience (hours caregiving, problematic behaviors of the PWD, caregivers' perception of dementia severity), sleep quality, and health (perceived health, stress, and depressive symptoms). Parametric unpaired t tests were used to calculate the differences between key variables. Multiple regression models were constructed, controlling for age, gender, behavior index, and dementia severity to examine the variance explained by living arrangements on sleep quality and health. Caregivers living apart from the PWD experienced the same level of poor sleep quality as did caregivers living with the PWD. The living arrangements of the caregiver did not make a unique contribution to sleep quality or health variables except for reports of unhealthy days. Given the importance of good quality sleep for health, the findings highlight the importance of evaluating caregivers living apart from the PWD for sleep problems with the same level of concern as one would have for those living with the PWD.