A Dyadic Sleep Intervention for Alzheimers Disease Patients and Their Caregivers

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Project Summary/Abstract Yeonsu Song, PhD, RN, FNP-C is an Assistant Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and is fully committed to becoming an independently-funded investigator specializing in sleep in individuals with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their caregivers. She has a particular interest in testing a dyadic sleep intervention program for Alzheimer’s disease patients and their informal caregivers. Dr. Song’s unique background makes her an ideal candidate for this field of research. She has fellowship training in advanced geriatrics, and has board certification in advanced practice nursing as a family nurse practitioner. She is currently supported by an Advanced Fellowship in Geriatrics through the Veterans Affairs (VA) Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC). Career development and training plan: This plan features an outstanding research and educational environment at UCLA, with nationally renowned expert mentors. Her primary mentoring team is comprised of Drs. Jennifer Martin (expert in behavioral sleep interventions), Cathy Alessi (expert in sleep medicine), Michael Irwin (expert in inflammatory factors and sleep), and Edmond Teng (expert in assessment of AD). She will also draw on resources available through UCLA’s CTSI, UCLA’s Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, UCLA’s Claude D. Pepper Center, and the GRECC. Her training plan features carefully curated coursework and hands-on training experiences, all aligned with her training goals. Research plan: The proposed research is hypothesis-driven and guided by preliminary data from Dr. Song’s VA-funded pilot study and existing behavioral sleep intervention methods. During the past 2 years of her fellowship, she has developed a dyadic sleep intervention program. In phase 1 (Aim 1), she will iteratively refine and finalize the intervention program targeting both members of the dyad (patients and caregivers) by evaluating acceptability and usability. In phase 2 (Aims 2-4) she will pilot test the program effects by assessing sleep, health, and quality of life in both members of the group using a small randomized controlled trial design, with the main analyses focused on caregiver outcomes. The intervention program will involve five sessions, including 4 home visits and one telephone session. It will include manualized sleep hygiene recommendations and a behavioral sleep intervention including sleep compression therapy. A unique aspect of the proposed work is that the program is tailored to address sleep problems of both patients and caregivers, and includes upstream biomarkers to evaluate a key mechanism of intervention benefits that can be further explored in future research. Skills developed from executing this training and research plan will enable Dr. Song to become an independent researcher and a leader in research on managing sleep in AD patients and their caregivers, with the goal of improving their health and quality of life.