Poor Sleep and Risk of Falls in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Systematic Review

Concerns about sleep problems and falls in older adults are significant. This article reviews the association between sleep problems and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older. Multiple databases were searched from inception until 2015 using sleep, sleep disorders, and falls as keywords, limiting to studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals. After screening and assessing for eligibility, 18 articles were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings of an association between sleep problems and risk of falls are conflicting, but some specific sleep problems such as extremely short sleep duration, daytime sleepiness and naps appear to be significantly related to falls in older adults. Methodological limitations including variability in covariates included in the analyses and measurement of the exposure and outcome variables were identified. The results of this review identified the need to have comparable definitions, validated tools, and rigorous design of future studies.