Sleep Quality and Disturbance in Family Caregivers of Patients with Chronic Illness
Summary
Family caregivers of patients with chronic illness often experience disrupted sleep characterised by reduced duration, poor efficiency and frequent nighttime awakenings. Chronic stress inherent to caregiving—stemming from emotional strain, physical demands and unpredictable care recipient needs—impairs circadian regulation and heightens physiological arousal, leading to difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep. Consequent sleep debt exacerbates fatigue, mood disturbances, cognitive decline and elevated cardiovascular risk, undermining caregivers’ resilience and overall quality of life. Both subjective assessments and objective measures such as actigraphy and polysomnography reveal marked declines in sleep quality compared with non-caregiver controls. Key modulators of sleep disturbance include hours devoted to care, sleep patterns of the care recipient, caregiver health status and socio-demographic variables. Interventions range from low-intensity behavioural programmes to tailored digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, demonstrating improvements in arousal, mood and perceived burden. Recognition of sleep disturbance as a modifiable factor is central to holistic care models, with global significance given ageing populations and rising prevalence of chronic conditions. Ongoing research seeks to refine measurement, elucidate underlying physiological pathways and optimise accessible, scalable solutions to support caregiver wellbeing.
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Sleep Quality and Disturbance in Family Caregivers of Patients with Chronic Illness publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in sleep quality and disturbance in family caregivers of patients with chronic illness across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Actigraphy: A method using wrist-worn accelerometers to estimate sleep–wake patterns by detecting movement.
Polysomnography: A comprehensive overnight recording of physiological parameters such as brain waves, oxygen saturation and muscle activity to assess sleep architecture.
Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I): A structured intervention that modifies maladaptive thoughts and behaviours to improve sleep quality.
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): A validated questionnaire quantifying subjective sleep quality and disturbances over a one-month period.
Caregiver burden: The multidimensional physical, emotional and social strain experienced by individuals providing long-term care to dependents.
References
- Development and Initial Evaluation of Web-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Rural Family Caregivers of People With Dementia (NiteCAPP): Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Aging (2023).
- Family Caregivers of People with Dementia Have Poor Sleep Quality: A Nationwide Population-Based Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2021).
- Examining the Impact of Different Components of Sleep Quality on Anxiety Among Family Carers of People with Dementia. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology (2022).
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