The Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Improving Sleep Quality in the Elderly

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of group cognitive-behavioral therapy on sleep quality of the elderly. This research was a semi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and control group design. Of all the elderly with sleep problem، who were members of retirement census in Kermanshah city in the year (2014)، 30 people through purposive sampling procedure were selected and randomly assigned into the experimental (15 people) and the control (15 people) groups. The experimental group received eight 90-min. sessions of group cognitive-behavioral therapy، and control group received no treatment، Both groups completed Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse، 1989) at pretest and posttest. The data were analyzed using (ANCOVA). The mean difference of scores in sleep quality components of experiment group، after the intervention، showed that cognitive-behavioral treatment lead to improved sleep quality in five components including subjective sleep quality (P<0. 001)، sleep latency (P<0. 001)، sleep duration (P<0. 001)، sleep efficiency (P<0. 001)، and sleep disturbance (P<0. 001). The result of the research showed that cognitive-behavioral treatment، can lead to promotion of sleep quality in the elderly. So، the findings suggest that، therapeutic personnel and nurses can use this sort of therapy in elderly domain.