Sleep and indoor environmental quality in homes of people with dementia and informal caregivers: a pilot study

Worldwide the number of people with dementia (PwD) is increasing. Most PwD live at home with the support of informal care, provided by family friends, neighbours, and volunteers (Greenwood & Smith, 2019). Most PwD eventually experience difficulties with sleep (Petrovsky et al., 2018). This can express itself in different ways, e.g. more naps during the day, difficulties falling asleep, and waking up at night or too early. Problems with sleeping can significantly affect the quality of life and that of their informal caregiver and may increase the burden of care (Byun et al., 2016). It is known that indoor environmental quality (IEQ) may influence the quality of sleep of healthy (older) people (Strøm‐Tejsen et al., 2016; Van der Veen et al., 2021). There is less known about the effect of IEQ, and other indoor environmental parameters, on the sleep quality of people with dementia. A pilot study was conducted to get more knowledge about the effect of indoor environmental quality on the sleep quality of PwD and their informal caregivers.