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SleepXacT: Use of contactless sleep technology for measuring sleep in people living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment
Principle Co-Investigators: Dr Alpar Lazar and Dr Anne Killett
Sleep problems are common in people living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which can affect their health and wellbeing, and that of the people who care for them. Diagnosing and managing sleep problems in primary care is difficult, and GPs often rely on reports from carers. However, carers may not always notice these sleep problems, especially if they are busy with caregiving tasks or do not live with the person with dementia or MCI. As a result, care-plans to help sleep may not work as effectively.
To improve clinical decision-making, objective and reliable measures of sleep are needed. However, traditional methods of measuring sleep (for example, an overnight sleep study) are often intrusive or uncomfortable, making them tough to cope with for people living with dementia or MCI and thus limiting their use in the community.
Recent advances in sleep technology offer a promising alternative, as contactless sleep trackers can easily monitor sleep without any physical sensors or complex setups. However, despite this potential, there is little knowledge on if this technology is practical or acceptable for use in dementia and MCI.
Therefore, in the SleepXacT study, we are studying the use of a bedside sleep tracker device to measure sleep at home in people living with dementia or MCI. Our aim is to see if this is a practical way to understand sleep in this population. We also want to find out the thoughts of carers on using this device and understand what GPs think of the sleep measures gathered using this technology.
SleepXacT is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (reference: NIHR206949) and is being conducted at UEA in collaboration with the University of Exeter and the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board.
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