Sleep Quality of Life in Elderly

Introduction: In the elderly population, the sleep efficiency decreases, causing changes in the quantity and quality of sleep, with a negative impact on their quality of life.

Objective: To evaluate the quality of life of elderly people based on their sleep.

Resumed Report: We conducted a cross-sectional qualitative study consisted of 48 individual of male and female gender through interviews composed by Epworth Sleepiness Scale, the Berlin survey and the Index of Sleep Quality in Pittsburgh. Into the survey of the Index of Sleep Quality in Pittsburgh 91.67% states a very poor sleep efficiency and most of them had a score > 5 indicating that elderly are having great difficulty in at least two or over three components. In the Epworth survey it is still possible to say that 31.25% have an excessive daytime sleepiness and into the Berlin, it has been shown snoring and prevalence of high pressure. According to the Brazilian Society of Sleep such questionnaires should be added to a clinical evaluation and so both of them will describe the severity of the problems that affect individuals of all ages.

Conclusion: Although the elderly refer have satisfactory quality of sleep, the survey showed excessive daytime sleepiness, tiredness during the day, and a very bad sleep efficiency. Thus, the quality of life of the elderly is impaired when assessed from the point of view of their sleep. The speech pathologist must develop proposals for direct intervention with this population of elderly.

Keywords: sleep, elderly, muscles.