Daylight savings can disrupt those living with dementia. Here’s how to help

For people living with Alzheimer's and dementia, daylight savings time can create disruptions in their daily routines, causing confusion and potentially worsening symptoms.

As Canadians prepare to set their clocks forward, the impact of daylight saving time goes beyond the inconvenience of resetting watches and clocks. For people living with Alzheimer’s and dementia, the subtle but significant time shift can create disruptions in their daily routines, causing confusion and potentially worsening symptoms.

Sleep disturbances are common among people with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia, including changes in sleep schedule, insomnia and wandering throughout the night, according to experts.

“Sleep disturbances can cause problems with cognitive function and memory consolidation,” explained Melanie Martin, an associate professor of physics at the University of Winnipeg. “With people who have Alzheimer’s and dementia… even that hour can cause sleep disturbances, which will keep them up at night and make them not follow their routine.”

This, in turn, could exasperate symptoms of Alzheimer’s, such as memory or cognitive decline, she said.

Daylight saving time ends for most Canadians on Sunday, Nov. 5. This is when clocks fall back one hour. However, the Yukon, most of Saskatchewan and some parts of British Columbia and Quebec stay on standard time.

The idea behind the clock shift is to maximize sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, as days start to lengthen in the spring and then wane in the fall.

But the benefits of this change are controversial, and the shift can have measurable impacts on health. Some studies have even found that the risk of strokes and heart attacks may increase by seven per cent following the time change.

Even without the impact of daylight savings, Alzheimer’s patients already experience disturbances in their circadian rhythms, meaning they have problems synchronizing with the light, said Andrée-Ann Bari, an assistant research professor in the department of medicine at the Université de Montréal.