Elderly Sleep Pattern and Disturbing Factors Before and After Hospitalization

Kim, Mi Young; Cho, Sung Hee; Lee, Sang Mi; Jung, Su Jung; Park, Kyung Sook

Abstract

Sleep is a necessity for survival, Disruption of sleep leads to numerous adverse physiological and psychological consequences. These could be particularly undesirable for older patients, who are subject to many additional factors. But there is limited research related to hospitalized elderly in Korea. The purpose of the study is to explore sleep patterns and disturbing factors of before and after hospitalization, in order to present basic information regarding elderly sleep to develop nursing intervention. The sample consisted of 32 elderly men and women between the ages of 60 and 87 years. Data collection was done from September to November 1997. Measures of sleep patterns and related factors were obtained from self-reported sleep questionnaires. Analysis of data was done by use of t-test, paired t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The results of this study were summarized as follows : 1. In comparison between before and after admission of their sleep pattern, "sleep onset" tends to be delayed and nocturnal sleep time was significantly reduced. So, hospitalized elderly reported less total sleep time than before admission. 2. Regarding the sleep disturbing factors, medication(hypnotics : 37.5%), physiological factor(snoring : 59.4%) environmental factor(pillow : 78.1%), emotional factor(anxiety related to disease : 37.5%), and illness factor(fatigue : 34.7%) were reported. 3. Significant differences in gender were found. Men had more disturbances in sleep than women owing to difficulty in falling a sleep and lack of nocturnal sleep. Women consumed more sleep inducing drugs. Significant increase was reported in napping during the day with increasing age. 4. Significant differences between good sleepers and poor sleepers were found for the following variables : nocturnal sleep time, total sleep time, bed time, sleep onset latency time, sleep latency time after nocturnal awakening, time spent in bed upon arousal, environmental factors, and emotional factors. In conclusion, it was found that the quantity and quality of sleep were significantly altered in hospitalized elderly, but adequate strategies for better sleep were not practiced. Further research is needed to develop intervention strategies to promote sleep and to prevent sleep problems.