Background. Older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer disease. Physical performance decline on ga

Sleep disturbances are a common and often bothersome menopausal symptom^1,2 that increase throughout the menopausal transition and early postmenopause.^3,4 Insomnia is associated with increased depression, impaired daytime function, reduced libido, and increased use of health care, creating a substantial burden for women and society.^5-10 Women with combined vasomotor and insomnia symptoms have more emergency department visits and lower physical and mental quality of life than women without sleep disturbances.¹¹ Insomnia is also associated with increased risk for obesity, diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease,^12,13 conditions that increase long-term disease and economic burdens in menopausal women.¹⁴

S and full research articles published in SLEEP, the official journal of the APSS. Sleep and sleep disorder scientific findings.

Wrist actigraphy has been used to assess sleep in older adult populations for nearly half a century. Over the years, the continuous raw activity data derived from actigraphy has been used for the characterization of factors beyond sleep/wake such as physical activity patterns and circadian rhythms. Behavioral activity rhythms (BAR) are useful to describe individual daily behavioral patterns beyond sleep and wake, which represent important and meaningful clinical outcomes. This paper reviews common rhythmometric approaches and summarizes the available data from the use of these different approaches in older adult populations. We further consider a new approach developed in our laboratory designed to provide graphical characterization of BAR for the observed behavioral phenomenon of activity patterns across time. We illustrate the application of this new approach using actigraphy data collected from a well-characterized sample of older adults (age 60+) with osteoarthritis (OA) pain and insomnia. Generalized additive models (GAM) were implemented to fit smoothed nonlinear curves to log-transformed aggregated actigraphy-derived activity measurements. This approach demonstrated an overall strong model fit (R² = 0.82, SD = 0.09) and was able to provide meaningful outcome measures allowing for graphical and parameterized characterization of the observed activity patterns within this sample.

This study examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of brief behavioral treatment for insomnia (BBTI) for persons living with HIV (PLWH). Of the 22 persons enrolled, 9 were lost before starting treatment, and one dropped out after starting BBTI. Acceptability was rated favorably by those completing the treatment (n = 12). The most common problems pertained to sleep hygiene: variable bedtimes and rise times, watching television, or consuming caffeine. Improvements on sleep outcomes at posttreatment were clinically and statistically significant on questionnaire and sleep diary outcomes. This study supports the overall feasibility of BBTI in PLWH, and the preliminary evidence supports further research on this treatment for PLWH who have insomnia, but dropouts indicate that some individuals may have difficulty initiating treatment.