Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 5, 2026

Multi-Modal Home Sleep Monitoring in Older Adults
Published on: January 26, 2019
Sleep disturbances and mortality: results from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging
K Rockwood1, H S Davis, H R Merry
1Division of Geriatric Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Objectives:
To cross-validate, in a secondary analysis, the observation that daytime sleepiness is associated with an increased risk of death.
Design:
Prospective cohort study.
Setting:
Canada, a nationally representative sample of people age 65 and older.
Participants:
Nine thousand and eight community-dwelling participants in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging.
Exposures:
self-reported sleep disturbances.
Outcomes:
Cox hazard ratios (HRs) for death.
Results:
The unadjusted analysis showed a small increased risk of death from daytime sleepiness (HR = 1.89; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.44-2.46), but this finding did not persist in a multivariate model adjusted for age, depression, cognition, comorbid illness, and function.
Conclusion:
Daytime sleepiness itself is not associated with an increased risk of death when other factors are taken into account. Daytime sleepiness may be a proxy for other morbid conditions and therefore for overall tiredness.
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