Brief Report Sleep in Assisted Living Facility Residents Versus Home-Dwelling Older Adults

Background. Sleep problems among assisted living facility (ALF) residents are not well understood, and sleep-related differences between ALF residents and home-dwelling older adults have not been examined. Methods. We compared sleep patterns in 19 ALF residents to sleep patterns in 19 matched home-dwelling older people (age 65 years). All were participating in the follow-up portion of a longitudinal study of sleep and functional outcomes following post-acute rehabilitation. Sleep was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and 1 week of wrist actigraphy. Results. By actigraphy, ALF residents awoke earlier in the morning and exhibited more nighttime awakenings compared to home-dwelling participants (06:50 hours 6 1:29 hours vs 07:51 hours 6 1:19 hours and 19.5 6 8.5 vs 12.9 6 11.4 awakenings, respectively). Conclusions. Larger studies are needed to confirm these initial findings that ALF residents have more disrupted sleep than do home-dwelling older persons, and to examine the functional and health consequences of poor sleep among ALF residents. Key Words: Sleep—Aging—Circadian rhythms—Assisted living. OLDER people in assisted living facilities (ALFs) are athigh risk for functional decline, but the role of sleep disturbance in predicting this decline is unknown. In on