Individual differences in the temporal relationship between sleep and agitation: a single-subject study in nursing home residents with dementia experiencing sleep disturbance and agitation.

Objectives: Previous studies on the interrelationship between sleep and agitation relied on group-aggregates and so results may not be applicable to individuals. This proof-of-concept study presents the single-subject study design with time series analysis as a method to evaluate the association between sleep and agitation in individual nursing home residents using actigraphy.

Method: To record activity, three women and two men (aged 78-89 years) wore the MotionWatch 8© (MW8) for 9 consecutive weeks.