These disturbances are often accompanied by violent movements as they try to act out their nightmares, hitting or yelling in fear. The most common sleep disturbances among seniors with memory loss conditions are nightmares. Memory Loss is Linked With Sleep Disturbances Most people assign a story to their dreams after waking up and consciously connecting all of the events that occurred in their dreams, so this is less likely to occur in older adults with memory loss. Although there have not been many studies conducted on how sleep is impacted by memory loss, it is widely believed that seniors with advanced memory loss experience dreams as an incoherent jumble of thoughts and feelings without a cohesive storyline. However, when short-term memory is compromised, the content of dreams tends to shift. This can lead to feelings of fear and confusion as they are unable to differentiate their dreams and reality.ĭreams are Associated with Short-Term Memory ConsolidationĪlthough the exact role of dreams is not yet fully understood, it is widely believed that dreams help us store important memories and things we’ve learned, weed out unimportant memories, and sort through our thoughts and feelings. Some seniors in the earlier stages of memory loss may still be able to recall their dreams, but they may have trouble understanding that a dream is not part of their memory, as they may not remember waking up from the dream and being able to acknowledge that it was not real.
It’s difficult enough for those without memory loss to remember everything that they dreamed about after a long and restful sleep, and those with more regressive memory loss do not have the ability to encode a dream into their short-term memory in order to recall it. Unfortunately, the way that seniors with advanced memory loss experience dreams is not well known because they are less likely to remember their dreams. Seniors With Memory Loss Are Less Likely to Remember Dreams Below, we discuss a few of the ways that memory loss may affect the dreaming patterns of our residents. At Yorkshire Village, we provide memory care for seniors of across all stages of memory loss progression. Understanding how older adults with memory loss experience life, including sleep and dreaming, is an important part of providing compassionate memory care. Cognitive function and sleep quality also tend to go hand-in-hand, so it goes without saying that older adults with memory loss are likely to experience sleep and dreaming differently than others.
Sleep plays a pivotal role in memory, promoting the consolidation of experiences and ideas, and dreams are a key function of this. Sleep and memory might seem like entirely different brain processes, but they are more intertwined than you may think.
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