What is the problem?
Sleep disturbance often affects people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and therefore also their carers as well. Sleep medicines help some people but not all, and they can be harmful or stop working if used long-term. For some people, non-medicine treatments, given either on their own or in combination with tablets, may be better. Help needs to be tailored to individuals, meaning that doctors, patients, and carers should work together to find the best solution.
What do people want?
We have spoken to:
– People living with dementia
– People living with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)
– Current or former carers of someone living with dementia or MCI
– And they have told us that sleep problems are common and need to be researched more.
What we will do?
We will develop and test a tool to help people living with dementia and MCI, as well as carers and healthcare professionals, to produce tailored care plans around sleep. We also want to reduce the harm from sleeping medicines. From previous research, we know some, but not all, of the elements that such a tool would need. Using expertise from people with lived experience, we will fill the gaps with this new research.
What will this mean?
We hope to improve health and wellbeing for people living with dementia or MCI who have sleep problems.
How will we share findings?
We will produce summaries for different audiences. Individuals with lived experience will help us prepare and share resources for people living with dementia or MCI, their carers, and healthcare professionals.
TIMES programme is divided across the following work packages:
Research Partners
