The psychological and health consequences of caring for a spouse with dementia: a critical comparison of husbands and wives.

Caring for someone with dementia can be demanding, particularly for spouses living with the care recipient. The main goal of this study was to clarify differences in the experience of caregivers who were husbands and wives with respect to burden, health, healthy behaviors, presence of difficult care recipient behaviors, social supports, and the quality of the premorbid relationship. The results of this study support research demonstrating a difference between the caregiving experiences of women and men.

Sleep disturbances in spousal caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Although sleep problems are commonly reported among dementia caregivers, the nature and frequency of caregiver sleep disruptions, and their relationship to health status, has received little empirical attention to date.

Methods: The current study investigated the sleep situations of a sample of 60 spousal caregivers currently residing with a Alzheimer disease care recipient, including the frequency of nocturnal disruptions by the care recipient, and the reasons for these disruptions. In addition, exploratory correlations were computed between caregiver sleep variables and health outcomes.