Optimal sleep is essential for health, well-being and recovery from illness but can be challenging to achieve in the acute hospital setting. Older people with dementia may find it particularly challenging to sleep well in the unfamiliar and disruptive environment of a hospital ward. Suboptimal sleep may potentially accelerate the progression of dementia. Conversely, optimal sleep may slow disease progression. Nursing staff who care for older people with dementia in hospital therefore need to find ways of supporting them to sleep well.

This article explores the causes and consequences of suboptimal sleep in hospitalised older people with dementia and discusses evidence-based interventions that nursing staff can use to support these patients to sleep well, including person-centred sleep care, changes to sleep hygiene, environmental adaptations and changes to medicine regimens.