Poor Sleep Could Put You In A Nursing Home?

We have recently heard about how the lack of sleep can cause an increased risk of diabetes, weight gain and stroke, but listen to this new study! Did you know that lack of sleep could help put you into a nursing home?

The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society revealed elderly women, who experienced the most fragmented sleep, had a three time risk of being placed in a nursing home five years later. Also, those who spent the least time actually sleeping after first going to bed were at a three time higher risk of being placed in a nursing home later.

The study included 1,664 women with an average age of 83. The researchers gauged their study b

y using a wrist actigraphy for four nights. It was found that on an average, all participants slept an average of 408 minutes or 6.8 hours.

The researchers followed up with the participants five years later and found that 71 of them were in a nursing home, while 127 were in a personal care home.

Study Researcher Dr Kristine Yaffe, MD., a professor at the University of California, San Francisco stated, “Despite the growing literature on sleep disturbances and disability, prior to our research very little was known about the association between sleep disturbance in older adults and risk of placement in long-term care facilities.”

I enjoy looking at all the different studies and reporting them to you. Some I think are fascinating, scientific, and add great value to our society. I feel some however are flawed and may be just spending the government’s money or tax payers’ money. There are some whose goals in life are to be able to claim that they have a “published paper.”

I feel this study could be flawed. Common sense tells us that when you take an 83 year old five years later, (their age would be 89), more than likely there could be health problems. If the family is unable to take care of that person, normally they will end up in a nursing home or personal care home. Only checking the participants for 4 nights does not seem to be enough time to claim a study. We all go through times that we do not sleep as well as over times.

The study did not mention the elderly person’s diagnosis. Was it Alzheimer’s, dementia, cancer, or an chronic illness? Yes, I believe being sleep deprived can bring about illness, but I feel that this study could be flawed in the since that it did not give us enough information.

This is an example of just one study and you sometimes have to ask yourself, “is this a true sc

ientific study?” “Should I believe everything they try to convince me to believe?”

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