title: Sleep in assisted living facility residents versus home-dwelling older adults.
abstract: 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 > or =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 +/- 1:29 hours vs 07:51 hours +/- 1:19 hours and 19.5 +/- 8.5 vs 12.9 +/- 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.
authors.affiliation: VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, CA, USA. jennifer.martin@va.gov
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Tarannum
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.forename: Judith O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Harker
authors.forename: Karen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Josephson
authors.forename: Cathy A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Alessi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D040561:Assisted Living Facilities; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*