Dementia – An estimated 4 to 5 million Americans have some form and degree of cognitive failure. Dementia is not a specific disease. It is a descriptive term for a collection of symptoms that can be caused by a number of disorders that affect the brain. People with dementia have significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interferes with normal activities and relationships. They also lose their ability to solve problems and maintain emotional control, and they may experience personality changes and behavioral problems, such as agitation, delusions, and hallucinations. While memory loss is a common symptom of dementia, memory loss by itself does not mean that a person has dementia. Researches show that over age 65 about 5-8% of people have dementia, over age 75, 15-20%, and over Age 85, 25-50%.
Sleep disorders – are disturbances that affect the ability to fall or stay asleep, that involve sleeping too much, or that result in abnormal sleep-related behavior.
About two-thirds of older adults (67%) report experiencing one or more of the following symptoms of a sleep problem at least a few nights a week: difficulty falling asleep, waking a lot during the night, waking up early and not being able to get back to sleep, waking up feeling un-refreshed, snoring, pauses in breathing, or unpleasant feelings in their legs. Surveys show that the greater the number of diagnosed medical conditions the person has, the more likely they are to report sleep problems.