Evaluation of Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Community-Dwelling Individuals With Dementia Experiencing Sleep Disturbances: An Updated Systematic Review

Sleep disturbances create adverse cognitive and health outcomes for people living with dementia (PLwD). Approximately 19% to 44% of PLwD in the community experience sleep disturbances, but to date, no systematic review has focused primarily on interventions developed for community-dwelling populations (Livingston et al., 2024; Koren et al., 2023; Wong & Lovier, 2023). This systematic review builds on a Cochrane Systematic Review (Wilfling et al., 2023) that evaluated all non-pharmacological interventions to help address poor sleep in PLwD. The current review builds on the Wilfling et al. (2023) review but focuses only on studies published from 2022 through 2024 and only RCT studies for community-dwelling PLwD experiencing sleep disturbances. Six studies met the inclusion criteria. Photo/light interventions and activity-based interventions had mixed outcomes, preventing any firm conclusions about effectiveness. Dyadic-based multi-component interventions may be effective for treating sleep in PLwD in the community.