Sleep association between spousal caregiver and person with dementia having REM sleep behavior disorder: a case study using wearable technology

Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is manifested by dreams associated with recurrent abnormal behaviors during sleep including punching, running, jumping out of bed with potential injuries to partners and more often found in persons with dementia (PWD). This is significantly associated with increased caregiver’s sleep disturbances, stress, and health problems that has not been measured objectively. The purpose of this case study was to identify sleep characteristics of a spouse caregiver and dyadic sleep diary for both PWD and caregiver. Furthermore, using Wearable Internet of Things (WIOT) technology (smartring and smartphone) for the caregiver, we examined sleep parameters (e.g., resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), sleep efficiency, deep sleep, REM sleep, and awake time at night) for 4 weeks.