अमूर्त

The effectiveness of sleep hygiene program on sleep quality and stress level in elderly population

Kiran Sharma, Swati Srivastava

Background and objective: Elderly are more vulnerable to stress than other age groups due to increase in stressors resulting from declining health and social relationship. Among Geriatric illnesses, geriatric sleep disturbance accounts for as high as 25% through 60%. The elderly tend to wake up more often during sleeping at night so in order to overcome sleep disorder, not only the drug treatment but also cognitive behavioural programs such as sleep hygiene education can be presented. Hence the study was set out to analyse the effect of sleep hygiene program on sleep quality and stress level in elderly population. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey design was used. 70 elderly subjects aged over 85 years were taken from community. They were assessed using following outcome measures: 1. Cohen Perceived Stress Scale 2. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index A Sleep Hygiene Program was developed and its effect was analysed on sleep quality and stress level in the sample. Result: Within the study Sleep Hygiene Program found to be effective in improving the sleep quality of elderly (M ± SD=pre-1.41 ± .496, post-2.64 ± 0.742, t=-9.772, p=0.000). We identified that maximum number of participants had high stress level (55%) and the stress level of the participants was reduced after the implementation of sleep hygiene program. The findings also revealed that increase stress level was significantly associated with poor sleep quality (Pearson’s r values=pre-0.95, post-0.92). Conclusion: From the result we concluded that Sleep Hygiene Program is an important tool for improving the sleep quality and stress level of elderly. There is positive association between sleep and stress.