UCSF

Background

Dementia is associated with disruptions in sleep and sleep quality for patients and their family caregivers. Little is known about the impact of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) on sleep.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to characterize sleep in patients with FTD and their family caregivers.

Methods

Twenty-two patient-caregiver dyads were enrolled: Thirteen behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD) and nine semantic dementia (SD). Sleep and sleep quality data were collected for 2 weeks using diaries and Actiwatches.

Results

Patients with bvFTD and SD spent more time in bed at night compared to their caregivers. Nighttime behaviors were reported more frequently by caregivers for the bvFTD patients and strongly correlated with caregiver distress. Actigraphy data showed normal sleep efficiency and timing of the nighttime sleep period for both patients and their caregivers. Caregivers of patients with bvFTD reported poorer sleep quality compared to the SD caregivers. A greater number of bvFTD caregivers compared to SD reported negative aspects of sleep quality for themselves and used sleep medications more frequently.

Conclusion

The clinical manifestations of bvFTD appear to be associated with different and more distressing impacts on the caregiver sleep quality than SD.