Abstract
Sleep is a significant problem for many older adults who experience changes in their circadian rhythm with age. As a result, older adults may report difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early. Assessment of circadian rhythm may provide insight into these common sleep complaints to inform interventions. We explored sleep and circadian rhythm in 34 community-dwelling older adults who participated in a study of activity and sleep. Participants wore an actigraphy watch and completed a sleep diary for 7 days. Additional variables included demographics, the SF-12 and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). We analyzed their sleep and compared quality of life among participants with poor sleep compared to those without. Participants were 94% female with a mean age of 75.2 (7.6). There were 67.7% Caucasians and 27% Blacks. For the SF-12, physical health (mean 46.07) was worse than mental health (mean 57.8). We identified 29% with self-reported poor sleep based on the PSQI score. By actigraphy, 29% had short sleep duration (<6 hours/night, n=10) and 26% had poor sleep efficiency (<85%, n=8). We found 29% had circadian rhythm sleep disorders: those with delayed sleep phase disorder (n=8) had lower quality of life, scores, both mental (p=.017) and physical health (p=-.026), with a trend toward older age (p=.082). Community dwelling older adults may experience poor sleep that may be created by circadian rhythm disturbances impacting quality of life. Further research is needed to explore circadian rhythm disturbances and related factors to improve sleep for this population.