Home exercise improves the quality of sleep and daytime sleepiness of elderlies: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Aging causes physiological changes which affect the quality of sleep. Supervised physical exercise is an important therapeutic resource to improve the sleep of the elderlies, however there is a low adherence to those type of programs, so it is necessary to implement an exercise program which is feasible and effective. The study aimed to test the hypothesis that a semi-supervised home exercise program, improves sleep quality and daytime sleepiness of elderlies of the community who present poor sleep quality. Methods This was a randomized controlled trial study, conducted from May to September 2017, in Northeastern Brazil, with elderlies of the community aging 60 years old or older, sedentary, with lower scores or equal to 5 at the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and without cognitive decline. From one hundred ninety-one potential participants twenty-eight refused to participate, therefore, one hundred thirty-one (mean age 68 ± 7 years), and 88% female, were randomly assigned to an intervention group - IG (home exercise and sleep hygiene, n = 65) and a control group - CG (sleep hygiene only, n = 66). Sleep assessment tools were used: PSQI, Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) and clinical questionnaire of Berlin. The level of physical activity has been assessed by means of International Physical Activity Questionnaire adapted for the elderly (IPAQ) and Mini-Mental State Examination for cognitive decline. All participants were assessed before and after the 12-week intervention period and, also, the assessors were blind. Results The IG showed significant improvement in quality of sleep with a mean reduction of 4.9 ± 2.7 points in the overall PSQI (p < 0.01) and in all its 7 components of evaluation (p < 0.05), and improvement of secondary endpoint, daytime sleepiness, a decline of 2.8 ± 2.2 points in the ESS (p < 0.01). Conclusion Our results suggest that semi-supervised home exercise is effective in improving the quality of sleep and self-referred daytime sleepiness of sedentary elderlies of the community who presented sleep disorders. Trial registration Ensaiosclinicos.gov.br process number: RBR-3cqzfy

Association of sleep quality with excessive daytime somnolence and quality of life of elderlies of community

Abstract Background The progressive increase in the elderly population contributes to the fact that studies on human aging have important attention of health professionals and government agents, since they present a great challenge regarding public health. Our objective is to characterize the profile of older people with poor sleep quality and analyze possible associations with excessive daytime somnolence, quality of life and functional mobility. Methods This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, involving elderlies of the community, with the questionnaires Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale, WHOQOL-OLD and application of the Timed Up and Go test - TUG. Descriptive statistics, Student’s t test for paired samples and Pearson’s correlation coefficient (p ≤ 0.05) were used. Results We recruited 131 elderly people, predominantly female (87%); mean age 68 ± 7 years, low per capita income (84.8% ≤ 2 minimum wage), low education (86.3% ≤ 3 years of study), and mostly staying with relatives (67.9%), married (39.7%) or amassed (35.9%). Seventy-one percent of the sample is above normal weight, 90.1% of women have an abdominal circumference ≥ 80 cm and a high prevalence of chronic and psychosocial diseases was identified in the self-report, and the risk of obstructive sleep apnea in 38.2%. The mean PSQI, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, WHOQOL-OLD and TUG were equal to, respectively, 11.2 ± 3.2; 8.32 ± 2.2; 84.8 ± 10.2 and 8.97 ± 2. An association of sleep quality with excessive daytime somnolence and quality of life, while not with functional mobility, was observed. Conclusion The results of the present study allowed to identify a sleep quality associated with excessive daytime somnolence and quality of life and also to characterize the profile of elders with poor sleep quality