Using at-home sleep technology to monitor Alzheimer’s disease treatments

Lead Investigator: Dr Magdalena Jones 

Institution: Imperial College London

Grant Type: Clinician and Healthcare Professional Training Fellowship

Start date: July 2023

Duration: 36 months

Amount: £326,392.56

Project summary

It's common for people with dementia to experience sleep disturbances. It can be disabling and may contribute to faster progression of the disease. Unfortunately, the current medication for Alzheimer’s disease symptoms can cause side-effects that lead to sleep disturbances.

Dr Jones and colleagues at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) have developed an under-mattress bed sensor which allows them to measure sleep in people with Alzheimer’s disease. By using the sensor, Dr Jones will be able to collect information about sleep quality, time spent in bed, sleep disruptions, as well as heart and breathing rates, over a long period of time.

Dr Jones aims to test whether this new technology which measures sleep would allow us to measure the effects of Alzheimer’s disease medication, and how well they are working.

In the future, this technology could allow clinicians to:

• Detect side-effects of dementia treatments earlier, potentially reducing the risk of serious clinical complications such as falls. 
• Improve doctors’ ability to tailor treatment doses to an individual’s needs.
• Provide new ways to measure the effects of drugs used to treat dementia. 

Project background

Sleep disturbances are common in dementia and can worsen as the disease progresses. Poor sleep could also contribute to a faster progression of the disease. Current medication that is prescribed to relieve symptoms of dementia can also affect people’s sleep and night-time behaviours. However, more research is needed to study the links between poor sleep and dementia.

Until now, measuring sleep in people’s homes over long periods has been difficult because of the lack of suitable tools. Sleep studies have often relied on people reporting sleep patterns themselves using questionnaires or sleep diaries. Unfortunately, people living with dementia may not recall or be aware of sleep problems they experience, so these approaches can be unreliable. More recently wearable technology, such as smart watches, have been used to monitor sleep, however people living with dementia can struggle to use wearable devices, especially for prolonged periods.

For this reason, Dr Jones and colleagues at the UK DRI developed an easy and reliable way of measuring sleep and night-time behaviour using a hidden under-mattress sensor. 

What does this project involve?

By using the sensor, Dr Jones will be able to collect information about sleep quality, time spent in bed, sleep disruptions, as well as heart and breathing rates, over a long period of time. Collecting information about heart and breathing rates will allow scientists to understand the side effects of currently prescribed medications, and how they affect disease progression.

This information will discreetly collect reliable data to measure an individual’s level of sleep disturbance, and whether it is getting worse over time.

The researchers will use this data and additional data collected from blood samples to study whether changes in blood proteins (biomarkers) are linked to changes in sleep.

How will this project help people with dementia?

This at home sleep-monitoring technology will help scientists and clinicians understand the side-effects of current medications better, potentially allowing doctors to tailor doses based on individual needs.

This study will also help future dementia research and drug development by providing a new way of identifying meaningful changes in people in response to treatment. This may ultimately help to develop new drugs for dementia, and new ways to monitor treatments in clinical trials