[Sleep quality of elders living in long-term care institutions]

This study was aimed at evaluating sleep quality and identifying sleep related problems among elderly people living in long-term care institutions in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Subjects were 38 cognitively preserved elders living in these institutions for at least a year. Data collection was performed using the following instruments: Identification Form, Katz Index and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index (PSQI). Results showed that 81.6% of the studied elders reported their sleep quality was good or very good. Nevertheless, there was an elevated frequency of sleep related problems such as: getting up to go to the bathroom (63.2%); getting up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning (50%); feeling too hot (23.7%); feeling pain (21.1%). These findings show an evident contradiction between elders' perception of their sleep quality and the actual elevated number of identified sleep problems.