The quality of sleep and the quality of life among the elderly people

Abstract

Introduction

Sleep problems are commonly seen among the elderly people and these problems affect the quality of sleep and the quality of life.

Objectives

The current research was conducted in order to determine the quality of sleep and the quality of life of the elderly people.

Methods

The research was conducted with 187 elderly people. Personal information form, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Turkish Version of WHOQOL-Bref-Quality of Life Scale were used for the data collection.

Results

The ages of the participant individuals ranged from 65 to 83 and mean age was 72.5 ± 5.24. It was determined that all of the elderly people had a bad quality of sleep. There was a significant negative correlation between areas of the quality of life and the quality of sleep. It was found out that scores of all of the areas of the quality of life were low among the elderly who were illiterate and had a chronic physical disease and that their quality of sleep was worse. The widowed and women had lower scores in physical, psychological and social areas of the quality of life scale and their quality of sleep was worse.

Conclusions

The quality of sleep and the quality of life are closely interrelated among the elderly people. A decrease in the quality of sleep causes a decrease in the quality of life. The quality of sleep should be continued by ensuring sleep hygiene among the elderly people and thus the quality of life should be increased.