Night‐to‐night variation in sleep associates with day‐to‐day variation in vigilance, cognition, memory, and behavioral problems in Alzheimer's disease

INTRODUCTION: Sleep disturbances are commonly reported in people living with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it is currently unknown whether night‐to‐night variation in sleep predicts day‐to‐day variation in vigilance, cognition, mood, and behavior (daytime measures). METHODS: Subjective and objective sleep and daytime measures were collected daily for 2 weeks in 15 participants with mild AD, eight participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 22 participants with no cognitive impairment (NCI). Associations between daytime measures and four principal components of sleep (duration, quality, continuity, and latency) were quantified using mixed‐model regression. RESULTS: Sleepiness, alertness, contentedness, everyday memory errors, serial subtraction, and behavioral problems were predicted by at least one of the components of sleep, and in particular sleep duration and continuity. Associations between variations in sleep and daytime measures were linear or quadratic and often different between participants with AD and those with NCI. DISCUSSION: These findings imply that daytime functioning in people with AD may be improved by interventions that target sleep continuity.