The relationship between daily nap and night time sleep quality in elderly

Elderly people often suffer from sleep disturbances. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self reported nocturnal sleep quality and napping pattern in elderly persons with insomnia and to compare the nocturnal sleep quality between napping and non napping groups. In this cross sectional study convenience Sampling was used to recruit 78 elderly people living in kahrizak nursing home in 2007. The pittsburgh Sleep Quality index (PSQI) questionnaire was used as a screening tool to select subjects with sleep disturbance. Data were analyzed using nonparametric Mann-Whitney U and Spearman Correlation Coefficient tests. Analysis of data showed that there was no relationship between sleep latency, sleep efficiency, sleep duration, use of sleeping medication, daily performance and global score of PSQI and napping pattern. Also between duration of naps and global score and subscales of PSQI questionnaire. Whereas significant correlation was found between subjective sleep quality (r=-0.255, p=0.023), sleep disturbances(r=-0.236, p=0.038) and napping pattern. The finding of this study showed that elders in napping group reported relatively better subjective sleep quality and lower sleep disturbance and day- time napping may have not effect on night-time insomnia in elderly people.