The overlooked pillar of care: How better sleep transforms nutrition and medication outcomes in care homes by Thomas Tredinnick, CEO and Founder, Ally Cares
As part of the day-to-day realities of running a care home, priorities often centre on nutrition, fluid intake, medication routines, supporting social engagement and safety. Whilst these are vital, there is a foundational factor that underpins every one of them: sleep.
Sleep is often the quiet enabler of health that goes unseen. At Ally, our mission is to help enable residents to live healthier, happier and longer lives. A principal focus is to shine a light on sleeps central role in resident wellbeing. Using our AI-powered resident monitoring technology, we’ve gathered rich data from care homes across the UK — and the message is clear: when sleep improves, so does nutrition, medication is adhered to and optimised, mood and social engagement improves and consequently overall health outcomes, meaning residents live happier, longer lives
Why sleep matters more than we think
When residents arrive in care, the care teams often know very little about their health and wellbeing history. Many are unwell, unsettled, or possibly recovering from a recent hospital admission. Sleep becomes a powerful starting point in their recovery. Restorative sleep helps the body heal, the mind reset, and provides the baseline from which better nutrition, medication adherence, and emotional stability can be achieved.
Poor sleep disrupts everything from metabolism to mood, cognition, and immunity. And in care settings, its effects are magnified.
Studies show that disturbed sleep is associated with a 33% increase in Alzheimer’s risk, 21% increase in depression, 23% increase in hypertension and 48% increase in coronary heart disease. Research also shows 25% increase in mortality, and measurable impacts on appetite, mobility, and medication tolerance.
In care homes, the average uninterrupted sleep is just over five hours a night. Why? Because care homes are inherently a poor sleep environment as a result of necessary but intrusive checks to background sounds as well as noise and light pollution.
“We noticed that some residents had disturbed sleep due to environmental factors like vibrating bed pumps.” commented Leigh Greensmith, Registered Manager at Clifton Manor.
Often there is a lack of awareness on whether health issues are impacting sleep, simply due to not knowing the quality of sleep for each resident, meaning they can’t be identified or treated.
The impact of this based on a study of 56,000 people (“Sleep Duration and Sleep Disturbances as Predictors of Healthy and Chronic Disease-Free Life Expectancy Between Ages 50 and 75: A Pooled Analysis of Three Cohorts” ), is that if you have disruptive sleep, it reduces life span by 1.3 years over 20 years, which is a massive number. If you directly relate that to the average length of time that a resident stays in care home over 18 months, that translates to a little over one and a half months of time, on average, that residents live less in your care home as they are not in a sleep-positive environment. Aside from a shorter life, the quality is worse as well with residents less physically and socially active, often with lower mood.
So how can you re-balance that reality, help teams invest in residents sleep whilst keeping them safe, and what’s is the impact we have seen across the care homes we work with ?
The impact on nutrition
When residents sleep better, they wake up more alert, attend meals, and engage more actively with food. The improvements in weight and nutritional resilience speak for themselves. With many of our care homes observing weight targets being hit or maintained a across the board.
We often hear from homes who discover how residents were spending large parts of the nights awake. This prompts them to first invest in improving the sleep environment and then consider other possible causes.
For example, a recent resident we worked with was found to be up for large periods during the night because each time the care team checked on her, she mistakenly thought it was the morning. Simply by checking less frequently, keeping the door closed and lights down that resident gained a full kilogram where previously they were losing weight. Her improved sleep restored her appetite and daily routine.
In another example, weight improvements were even more pronounced. A resident, living with mid-onset dementia, extended her sleep from 11pm–6am to 10pm–9am. Her weight rose from 57kg to 64kg over several months.
Before Ally installed:
After Ally installed:
The care home manager said:
“We’ve seen the quality of sleep for residents improve greatly, improving the quality of their days and life. Residents are now sleeping less in the afternoons, doing more activities, and are happier with visitors.”
Feedback from the Manager at West Eaton Care Home supports this further:
“Residents weights have increased because they’re getting better sleep. At meal times, the residents are eating because they’re not tired which is having a positive knock on impact”
At Azalea Court, acoustic monitoring revealed that a resident living with Huntington’s Disease experienced bursts of restlessness each night. These were linked to an insatiable appetite. By working with a dietitian to deliver high-calorie, nutrient-rich smoothies, the resident gained weight, slept longer, and experienced fewer behavioural challenges.
Julie Burton, Head of Operations at Twinglobe Care, reflected:
“We were able to piece together a full picture from what seemed like separate challenges. With the data from Ally, we linked disrupted sleep, nutritional imbalance, and distress. Addressing one helped resolve all three.”
The sleep-medication connection
It’s no surprise that a well-rested resident is more cooperative and alert during medication rounds. But what we’ve seen is that sleep actually enhances medication adherence.
One particularly telling example came from a resident whose time-sensitive Parkinson’s medication was repeatedly missed due to morning fatigue. Before extending their check cycles, they had 10 refused doses and 13 late ones. After improving sleep: just 8 refusals, and no late administrations. The connection is undeniable.
A similar story is seen at another care home with a resident who showed signs of challenging behaviour. Within 6 months of investing in a positive sleep environment, the resident began sleeping through the night, his antipsychotic medications were reduced, and his behavioural issues ceased.
The care home manager summed it up:
“We didn’t expect such a significant improvement in sleep. Our residents are now more engaged, eating better, and requiring less medication.”
Fewer checks, better rest, more responsive care
The power of Ally lies not just in the data we generate, but in how it enables care homes to act with confidence.
We operate in over 5,000 beds and see residents being awake between 30%-50% less which this releases on average 10 hours of time per night shift for a 30 bed care home.
When residents are awake less, that automatically decreases the immediate risk of falls for residents as they won’t be mobilising when asleep! And naturally if residents enjoy better rest that means they are healthier, so they’re overall health risk will decrease.
In one example, care home residents are now woken 41% less at night. That change alone has unlocked:
- Greater weight stability
- Reduced antipsychotic use
- Increased hydration and meal participation
Plus fewer overnight interruptions has led to:
- 23% fewer sleep disturbances
- 13 additional hours per night returned to staff to provide care where needed
The result? Healthier residents, more confident teams, and stronger family trust.
The bigger picture: integrating systems for whole-person care
One of the most exciting evolutions we’ve seen is the how care teams have used Ally’s data with other platforms like Nourish, PainChek and Cammascope. Combining these systems has helped these homes make earlier, more informed and accurate decisions. For example a resident may be in undiagnosed pain. The first signs may be prompted by Ally picking up if they are audibly in pain, or even just more restless as night as they are uncomfortable. Paincheck can then be used to confirm this, Nourish can be checked for past records of injury, Cammascope can be checked for meds. This quickly builds a new faster care pathway to get that resident relief and better rest allowing them to recover.
Azalea Court, is a great example of how bringing all this data together has helped staff detect:
- Early signs of infection
- Find links between behaviour, nutrition, and rest
- Find the cause of sleep deprivation where it is not the environment, allowing more restorative rest.
As Julie Burton notes:
“Our multidisciplinary team is now building pathways from sleep data into dietitian, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy support. The result? Fewer hospital admissions, better health, and stronger independence.”
Conclusion: Sleep is a clinical priority
Sleep isn’t just comfort. It’s care. It affects whether medication is taken, whether meals are eaten, whether someone heals or declines. It underpins every single outcome we measure in social care.
The evidence is clear: when we help residents sleep better, we help them live longer, healthier lives. We reduce hospital admissions, improve nutrition, and enable more effective medication use. And we give carers the time and space to focus where it truly matters.
The difference is truly night and day!
Let’s stop treating sleep as secondary. It’s time we put it at the heart of care.
Learn more about Ally’s AI resident monitoring technology and how we’re transforming sleep, nutrition, and wellbeing across UK care homes: www.allycares.com