Overview
In this project, the aim is to evaluate whether cognitive behavioral therapy of insomnia (CBTi) may ameliorate sleep disorders and improve cognition in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia. More than half of patients with dementia have sleep problems that precede cognitive impairment by several years on many occasions. CBTi is the most effective treatment for managing insomnia in cognitively non-impaired people, but its potential benefit has never been evaluated in MCI or mild dementia.
Project Details
We will provide CBTi to people with MCI or mild dementia and evaluate sleep quality at three months and one year after treatment. In addition to subjective measures of sleep, we will evaluate sleep quality through polysomnography and actigraphy objective measures, as well as cognitive performance through formal neuropsychological testing. We hypothesize that CBTi can help improve sleep for patients and their caregivers and delay cognitive decline. Should this project’s results prove positive, they can justify larger studies and the potential inclusion of CBTi in policy measures and professional guidelines for curbing dementia burden.
