Less Medication, Better Judgement: How Ally Helps Homes Reduce Reliance on Medication
Medication plays an important role in care. But it is also often used to manage the consequences of poor sleep, distress and uncertainty, particularly at night.
Across care homes using Ally, teams have begun to reassess that balance.
What they’ve found is not that medication is unnecessary, but that better night-time insight leads to better judgement, and, in many cases, less reliance on medication.
When sleep changes, medication follows
At The Lawns Nursing Home, improved sleep fundamentally altered night-time decision-making.
“We were able to demonstrate the need to have fewer medications at night because people were sleeping better.”
Previously, agitation and restlessness often triggered PRN medication. Once nights became calmer and more predictable, those triggers reduced.
Medication reviews became evidence-based rather than precautionary.
Evidence that supports clinical decisions
At Robert Harvey Nursing Home, Ally provided the insight needed to support a targeted medication review.
“We listened to the sound and shared it with the GP, who changed her medication, and straight away her nights became peaceful.”
Here, sound data didn’t lead to escalation. It enabled a precise, informed adjustment leading to improved sleep and reduced distress almost immediately.
This kind of evidence strengthened conversations with clinicians, making medication decisions clearer and more defensible.
Medication consistency, not just reduction
At Azalea Court, night-time insight helped the team address a different but equally important medication challenge: consistency.
One resident had experienced repeated refusals and delays with essential Parkinson’s medication, particularly in the mornings. By using night-time insight to understand the resident’s sleep pattern and adapt care accordingly, the team were able to stabilise routines. Over a comparable four-month period, medication refusals reduced significantly and mornings became calmer and more predictable.
The improvement wasn’t driven by changing the medication itself, but by understanding how disrupted sleep was affecting readiness, routine and engagement with care. Better nights led to better mornings, and more reliable medication administration.
Distinguishing movement from distress
In homes supporting residents with dementia, behaviour can easily be misinterpreted. At Mulberry Court, Ally helped staff distinguish habitual movement from genuine distress.
“Now staff understand the difference between movement and distress, they don’t automatically escalate to medication.”
That distinction reduced reflexive PRN use. Medication became a considered response, not a default.
Reframing agitation in complex care
At Kathryn’s House, night-time insight challenged long-held assumptions about agitation.
“What we thought was agitation wasn’t always that. Once we understood what was happening overnight, medication wasn’t always the answer.”
Understanding fear, paranoia or confusion allowed reassurance strategies and care-plan changes to replace medication escalation.
The result was calmer nights, without additional pharmacological intervention.
System-level confirmation
These experiences are not isolated. Within the NCL Falls programme, system leaders reported similar trends:
“Care homes have reported a range of benefits including less agitation and less need for medication as residents are sleeping better.”
Medication reduction appeared alongside improved sleep, better nutrition and greater daytime alertness, reinforcing how interconnected these outcomes are.
A shift in thinking, not a removal of medication
What emerges across homes is not a push to eliminate medication, but a shift in how and why it is used.
Ally helps teams ask better questions:
- Is this behaviour new or habitual?
- Is medication treating a cause or masking a symptom?
- Would better sleep change the picture?
When those questions are answered with evidence rather than assumption, medication becomes more appropriate, more targeted and often less frequent.
Why this matters
Medication decisions carry risk, for residents and for providers. Reducing unnecessary medication improves:
- safety
- dignity
- alertness
- quality of life
And it supports more confident clinical conversations.
Better insight doesn’t replace professional judgement. It strengthens it.
If medication use is a growing concern in your home, the starting point may not be new protocols, but clearer night-time understanding.
Speak to us about how Ally helps homes support calmer nights and more informed medication decisions.