Comparison of the effect of sleep hygiene education with the cognitive and behavioral method on the quality of sleep in elderly

Being an elderly is associated with major changes in the quality and pattern of sleep. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of sleep hygiene education compared to cognitive- behavioral methodology on the quality of sleep in the elderly patients referred to daily care centers.

This is a quasi-experimental research conducted on two-groups of 80 elderly people referring to day care centers in Sari city. In one group, sleep health education was conducted and in the other group, cognitive-behavioral methodology was held. Eighty eligible elders were assigned to two groups of sleep hygiene education (40N) and cognitive-behavioral intervention (40N). Sleep quality was assessed by Pittsburgh sleep quality standard questionnaire before and after intervention. At the beginning of the study, questionnaires (demographic characteristics questionnaire and Pittsburgh sleep quality questionnaire) were completed in both groups. Data was analyzed by SPSS v. 20 and descriptive and inferential statistics.

The mean age of the samples was  in the cognitive behavioral group and it was  in the sleep hygiene education group. The mean and standard deviation of sleep quality of elderly people, before and after the cognitive behavioral method in the first group were 8.05 ± 3.651, 6.67 ± 2.66 respectively, the mean and standard deviation of sleep quality in the elderly before and after the sleep hygiene education in the second group were8.42 ± 3.39, 7.23 ± 2.454respectively. Comparison of the mean of sleep quality before and after intervention in both groups showed that the sleep quality of the elderly was significantly improved (P< 0.001). Given that the F statistics of covariance analysis test is significant (F (1.79) = 0.999, P = 0.321), Therefore, these two methods had the same effect on the overall quality of sleep in the elderly

, Considering that Cognitive- behavioral and sleep hygiene education method are an effective alternative to medication therapy replacement in the elderly, and each of the two methods have no side effects, it is recommended that, given the based on economic conditions and social facilities for the elderly, and facilities available to them. Each of these two alternatives is a substitute for hypnotics.