tailieunhanh - 24-Hour Sleep/Wake Patterns in Healthy Elderly Persons

Food consumption research suggests that widowhood confers potentially negative effects on food intake through weight change, increased adverse health outcomes, including depression, and diminished “nutritional self-management”, leading to changes in dietary behaviour and food This is particularly evident among men over the age of 7540,65,78,88 with low Indeed, there is a strong relation between living alone and dietary intakes among men,80,88-90 but these findings have not been consistent91,92 and are even less so among Information on the influence of living arrangements on dietary intake in seniors appears to be inconclusive and may depend on cultural or other differences in the samples studied | 24-Hour Sleep Wake Patterns in Healthy Elderly Persons Barbara D. Evans and Ann E. Rogers The purpose of this study was to examine the 24-hour sleep wake patterns of healthy elderly persons. Data was obtained from 14 elderly subjects who wore a wrist acti-graph for 48 hours and completed an activity diary during the monitoring period. Although subjects spent slightly more than hours in bed at night they were asleep for just over 6 hours. Subjects did not have trouble falling asleep but once asleep had ttouble remaining asleep. All subjects took one or more naps during the recording period but daytime naps composed only a small fraction of their total sleep time. Total duration of daytime sleep averaged minutes. Copyright 1994 by . Saunders Company SLEEP IS A universal and vital human function. Assisting patients to receive adequate rest is a core component of nursing. Nursing strategies used to promote sleep have frequently been based on trial and eưor instead of on empirical evidence. For example daytime naps are often discouraged in order to improve nighttime sleep. However the appropriateness of this practice with elderly persons or younger individuals has not been tested. Furthermore the question of whether daytime naps are the cause or the consequence of disturbed nighttime sleep remains unanswered. BACKGROUND One of the most consistent changes observed in the sleep of the aged is a progressive reduction and in some cases the total disappearance of the deepest levels of sleep stages 3 and 4 . The percentage of Stage 1 sleep the lightest stage of sleep almost doubles during old age increasing from 8 to 15 of nocturnal sleep time Bliwise 1989b . Sleep efficiency or the amount of time asleep divided by the amount of time in bed decreases with aging. Elderly persons awaken more often at night and stay awake longer than younger persons sleeping only 70 to 80 of the time that they are in bed Prinz 1977 . Therefore the elderly often spend more time in bed