Work

Sleep in Assisted Living Facility Residents Versus Home-Dwelling Older Adults

Year: 2008

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Sleep problems among assisted living facility (ALF) residents are not well understood, and sleep-related differences between ALF residents and home-dwelling older adults have not been examined. METHODS: We compared sleep patterns in 19 ALF residents to sleep patterns in 19 matched home-dwelling older people (age > or =65 years). All were participating in the follow-up portion of a longitudinal study of sleep and functional outcomes following post-acute rehabilitation. Sleep was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and 1 week of wrist actigraphy. RESULTS: By actigraphy, ALF residents awoke earlier in the morning and exhibited more nighttime awakenings compared to home-dwelling participants (06:50 hours +/- 1:29 hours vs 07:51 hours +/- 1:19 hours and 19.5 +/- 8.5 vs 12.9 +/- 11.4 awakenings, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Larger studies are needed to confirm these initial findings that ALF residents have more disrupted sleep than do home-dwelling older persons, and to examine the functional and health consequences of poor sleep among ALF residents.

Source: The Journals of Gerontology Series A

DOI: 10.1093/gerona/63.12.1407

Authors: J. L. Martin, T. Alam, J. O. Harker, K. R. Josephson, C. A. Alessi

Institutions: VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Sleep and related disorders

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Aging