[Objective improvement of sleep disorders in the elderly by a health education program]

The prevalence of sleep disorders increases with age and reaches 20 to 40% of those older than 60 years. We set up a health education program to help the elderly to improve their sleep. It includes a preliminary 9-day evaluation with a sleep diary and wrist actigraph, a day of group cognitive behavioral therapy, and a follow-up assessment, again with sleep diary and actigraph.

Of the 26 study participants (9 men and 17 women, mean age: 68+/-1 years), 14 had insomnia with night awakenings of 1 hour or longer or a sleep latency of 30 minutes or longer or both (group 1). The other 12 (group 2) also complained of insufficient sleep.

In the weeks following cognitive behavioral therapy, group 1 improved their total sleep time by an average of 24 to 33 minutes, with reduced night-time awakenings and sleep latency and no change in their time spent in bed. Those in group 2 also increased their total sleep time by 18 to 47 minutes, by spending more time in bed and maintaining a sleep efficiency close to 88%.

This study showed that cognitive behavioral therapy coupled with individual sleep evaluation improves sleep duration in elderly people who complain of insufficient sleep. These beneficial effects were accompanied by positive assessments of both subjective sleep quality and morning energy.