An investigation of the subjective sleep of elderly women : what is good sleep and how is it achieved

Age-related change in the sleep quality of women in aged-care is a key area in\ud gender and ageing research. Not only does the structure of sleep change with\ud age, but so too do the perceptions and beliefs around sleep, and the sleep\ud management strategies available to women. Surprisingly however, the essence\ud of the sleep beliefs and self-management strategies of women in aged-care\ud remains largely unexplored. What is clear, is that this essence is not\ud sufficiently captured by current clinical measures, reflecting the notion that\ud sleep researchers and elderly women hold discordant beliefs regarding sleep\ud quality. In order to address that disjuncture, this mixed methods study aimed\ud to investigate a) the meanings of good and poor sleep quality for elderly\ud women in aged-care, and b) women's self-management of sleep quality