Factors that interferes with sleep in elderly students from Maturity's University in the city of Palmas (TO)

Abstract

The senescence's process entails changes in the amount and quality of sleep, therefore most elderly have sleep-related complaints arising from specific physiological changes due to the aging process which can cause sleep-related disorders. Purpose: to identify the factors which affect the sleep of elderlies, students from the Maturity's University. Method: this is a descriptive survey of cross-sectional and quantitative's nature, the following instruments were used for data collecting: socio-economic survey questionnaire followed by the Epworth Sleepness Scale (ESS) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The ESS results revealed that 75% of the male group and 51.85% of the female group presented normal excessive daytime sleepness with <10 scores. Whilst the PSQI open answers related to the bed time revealed that 43.75% of men would lay at between 11 pm and 0 am, while 29.63% of women would lay at between 9 pm and 10 pm. In relation to the time to fall asleep, 68.75% of men and 62.96% of women took ≤ 15 minutes; in relation to the wake up time, 75% of men and 37.04% of women wake up at between 6 and 7 am; in relation to the sleep time, 50% of men slept between 7 and 8 hours a night and 51.85% of women slept ≥ 8 hours a night. Whilst the global PSQI revealed that 56.25% of men have a good sleep quality  and that 66.67% of women presented bad sleep quality, although they have a bigger efficiency related to the sleep. The results showed that men had a good sleep quality and women had a bad sleep quality.