Characteristics of subjective insomnia in the elderly living at home

Profiles of sleeping habits, subjective sleep quality, and mental and physical well-being were obtained from 1023 elderly individuals randomly sampled from the Nottinghamshire Family Practitioner Committee's records. Subjective insomnia at least 'sometimes' was reported by 37.9% of the sample. Discriminant analysis of selected health and demographic variables indicated that symptoms of anxiety, sex and self-ratings of health were the factors most influential in predicting reports of problem sleep. Thus, respondents classified as subjective insomniacs tended to have significantly higher anxiety scores, to be women, and to rate their health as below average. Relative to the non-insomniac respondents, those complaining of sleep problems also perceived their sleep latency as longer, and their total sleep as shorter. These results emphasize that, in addition to apparently 'normal' age-related changes in the structure of sleep, subjective insomnia in old age may often be mediated by the physical and psychological disorders which can accompany ageing.