The effect of aerobic exercise on improving the mental quality of sleep and quality of life of the elderly

Sleep is one of the important elements in circadian cycles that is associated with the restoration of physical and mental strength and has a great impact on quality of life. Sports activities are among the interfering factors in improving the quality of sleep and quality of life; Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of the effect of aerobic exercise on improving the mental quality of sleep and quality of life of the elderly.

This is a quasi-experimental study and the subjects of this study were 40 elderly people in 1399. For data analysis, a researcher-made demographic questionnaire was used and the standard questionnaires for measuring Petersburg quality of sleep (PSQI) and quality of life (SF-36) were used. An appropriate training protocol was used for the intervention and data were analyzed. Shapiro-Wilk, dependent parametric t-test and non-parametric Wilcoxon tests were used and statistical calculations were used by SPSS software.

After aerobic exercise, the average score of sleep quality decreased from 8.1 to 6, ie 26% improvement in sleep quality and the average score of quality of life increased from 78.63 to 81.73, ie 4% improvement in quality of life was observed (p≤ 0.05).

It seems that the intervention has a significant effect on the studied variables and sports activities improve the level of sleep quality and quality of life of the elderly.