Improving symptoms of senile dementia by a night-time spa bathing

In our medical and welfare facilities, many patients with senile dementia require aid in taking a bath. In most institutions, patients usually take a bath in the daytime within the working hours of the staff. However, most of these patients used to take a bath in the evening or at night at their homes. Some patients even fall asleep after daylight bathing. Thus, we studied the stabilizing effects of night-time spa bathing on symptoms associated with dementia. Ten patients (two male and eight females, aged 75–88) in special nursing institution for the aged, were enrolled in this study. They were all assessed as +4 on the Karasawaʹs clinical criteria for grading dementia. For 9 weeks, night-time spa bathing was performed at 18:00–19:00 twice a week. Except for the night-time spa bathing period, the bathing hour was 14:00–15:00 as usual. The observations of symptoms including restlessness, wandering and aggression were carried out ten times daily along with those on sleeping condition five times daily, to compare symptoms and conditions during 2 weeks of baseline daytime bathing periods, 9 weeks of night-time bathing periods and 2 weeks of daytime bathing periods, totaling 13 weeks. The results showed that sleeping conditions were ameliorated in more than 60–90% of the subjects. Their sleeping conditions began to improve 2 weeks after the start of night-time spa bathing with a remarkably improvement 4–6 weeks after the start. Restlessness was recognized in six subjects, wandering in eight and aggression in four at baseline, and 75–100% of the subjects with such symptoms improved markedly.