Lifestyle regularity a means for maintaining a good night's sleep

Washington, Apr 1 : Maintaining regular daily routines is associated with better sleep quality in older adults, a new study has claimed.

The study has been published in the April 1 issue of the journal Sleep.

Results of regression analyses indicate that increased stability in daily routine predicted a shorter time to fall asleep, higher sleep efficiency and improved sleep quality.

Stability in basic activities such as bathing, dressing and eating was more strongly associated with sleep quality than stability of instrumental activities such as shopping, public transportation use and medical appointments.

According to the authors, routine lifestyle rhythms may be characterized by stability in the timing, frequency and duration of daily activities such as watching TV or reading a book. It is also possible to identify weekly patterns of regularity in activities such as cleaning, exercise and social engagements.

Lead author Anna Zisberg, R.N., M.A., Ph.D., assistant professor at the University of Haifa in Mt. Carmel, Israel, said that the findings highlight the importance of developing lifestyle regularity as a means for maintaining good sleep quality.

"We predicted that there would be a relationship between routine activity patterns and sleep quality, since theoretically sleep patterns and other everyday life activities are related and potentially synchronized," said Zisberg. "However, given the widely accepted view that light is the major synchronizer of the human sleep-wake cycle, we were surprised that our findings were so robust."

The study was conducted in the northern part of Israel between August 2007 and September 2008. It involved 96 Russian-speaking older adults in two retirement communities where each apartment was fully equipped as an independent functional unit including a kitchenette. They had a mean age of about 75 years, with a range from 58 to 89 years. Seventy-two percent were female, 82 percent lived alone and 75 percent reported fair or good health. Sleep medication was used less than once a week by five percent of the sample, from once to twice a week by seven percent of participants and three times or more per week by 23 percent of the sample.