Healthy Aging & Clinical Care in the Elderly

A telephone survey of 1166 community resident seniors (658 male, 508 female, age between 65 and 97 years, mean 74.8 years) was undertaken, which included among other components telephone versions of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Sleep Timing Questionnaire (STQ). The median PSQI score was 5 and the median ESS score 6, suggesting that neither sleep problems, nor daytime sleepiness problems, were particularly prevalent in this sample of seniors. The STQ indicated that the habitual timing of the sleep episode appeared to be within the usual 11 pm to 7:30 am range, with about 7.5 hours of actual sleep within that interval being reported. There was, however, a sizable minority who broke this pattern, with 25% of the sample reporting less than 6.7 hours of sleep, and problems with nocturnal sleep and daytime sleepiness.