SleepXacT Feasibility Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Feasibility and practicability of low-burden contactless sleep tracking devices to measure objective sleep quality in sleep interventions in patients with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (SleepXacT).
IRAS ID
333820
Contact name
Alpar Lazar
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NIHR206949, NIHR Funder number
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 4 days
Research summary
Poor sleep is common in people living with dementia (PLWD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and increase the burden on patients and their carers. Sleep problems are difficult to diagnose and treat in primary care, and GPs are often reliant on subjective carer reports to identify sleep disturbances in PLWD/MCI.
However, carer assessments might not always show the whole picture; carers are frequently overburdened by caregiving tasks and may not be able to recognise the true extent of the sleep problems. This may potentially limit the effectiveness of care plans aimed at treating and improving sleep in PLWD/MCI, such as the tailored sleep intervention developed by the TIMES study.
To address this limitation, we want to explore the use of a contactless bedside sleep tracker to monitor sleep in PLWD/MCI. Our main objective is to see if this is a feasible and practical way to measure sleep in PLWD/MCI; we also plan to assess the experiences of the carers in using this technology and to find out what GPs think of the objective sleep data collected from the device.
Our study will build upon the TIMES programme. We plan to recruit 40 PLWD/MCI and their carers from primary care practices. Patient participants will have both a carer sleep assessment and overnight sleep monitoring using the contactless sleep tracker. PLWD/MCI and their carers will then have an in-person consultation with their GPs to develop a tailored sleep plan, using the intervention tool developed by TIMES. Participants will be followed up for 15-weeks on the TIMES intervention, with repeat assessments at 9- and 15-weeks to measure sleep using the sleep tracker and to assess their general health and wellbeing. During and after this follow-up, we will speak to carers and GPs about the acceptability and practicality of the sleep tracker.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/LO/0306
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jul 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion