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Since desire for death is the first step into the suicidal process, health professionals should seriously consider the important and unique contribution of these variables in order to have more opportunities for detection and intervention.

Study Objectives Research indicates that sleep efficiency below 80% substantially increases mortality risk in elderly persons. The aim of this study was to identify factors that would best predict poor sleep efficiency in the elderly, and to determine whether associations between these factors and sleep efficiency were similar for men and women and for younger and older elderly persons. Methods A total of 2468 individuals aged 65–96 years (40.7% men) participated. They were recruited via random generation of telephone numbers according to a geographic sampling strategy. The participants agreed to have health professionals visit their home and to answer structured interview questions. Sleep efficiency was calculated based on interview responses. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were conducted. Results The factors most strongly associated with sleep efficiency below 80% were pain, nocturia, sleep medication use, and awakening from bad dreams. Some factors varied by sex: women aged 75 years and older or who had an anxiety disorder were more likely to have sleep efficiency below 80%, whereas being single or having painful illness raised the likelihood for men only. Except for sex, all the factors that showed associations with sleep efficiency affected younger and older elderly persons similarly. Conclusions Poor sleep efficiency is prevalent among elderly persons. The results shed new light on factors associated with poor sleep efficiency, highlighting the presence of sex differences and that certain factors make no significant contribution, such as typically proscribed sleep hygiene behaviors, mood disorders, and illness in general.

PurposeThe objective of this study was to identify the sleep problems most often encountered by the elderly according to the presence or absence of anxiety and mood disorders. The aim was also to determine whether groups of anxious, depressive, and asymptomatic individuals differ in relation to sleep onset latency; awakenings at night or early in the morning; subjective quality of sleep; taking of sleep medication; and daytime sleepiness.MethodsStructured interviews based on the DSM-IV-TR were administered to a sample of 2,759 seniors aged 65 years and older at the participants’ home by health professionals.ResultsAwakening was found to be the most common disturbance. Increased sleep onset latency was the second most frequent sleep difficulty. Taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep was associated with the likelihood of meeting the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder, and even reduced the risk of meeting the diagnostic criteria for a mood disorder rather than an anxiety disorder. Awakenings were associated with the probability of suffering from an anxiety disorder or a mood disorder. Quality of sleep, as perceived by the elderly, was not found to be associated with the probability of suffering from a mental disorder.ConclusionThese findings should help to facilitate the practitioner’s diagnosis and add further nuances to be considered when encountering symptoms of an anxious or depressive appearance. All of these data also add fuel to the ongoing debate about whether anxiety and depression are one or two distinct categories of disorders.

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The aim of this study was to draw a portrait of the sleep environment of elderly persons living in private households and to determine its relationship with the presence of insomnia. A sample of 599 individuals aged 70 years and older responded to questions about the comfort of their pillow and mattress and the noise level and brightness of their bedroom at night and in the morning. They were also asked whether or not they shared their bed or bedroom with a sleep partner. The Insomnia Severity Index was used to assess insomnia severity. Over 40% of the study participants were using a pillow that was not very comfortable, and almost 30% said that their bedroom was not completely quiet. Binomial logistic regression results revealed that two variables were significantly associated with insomnia symptoms: a pillow rated as moderately comfortable to very uncomfortable and a bedroom that was not completely quiet. No other sleep environment characteristics considered in this study were associated with the risk of insomnia. These results indicate that a nonnegligible proportion of the elderly population endures a suboptimal sleep environment. Although it is difficult to predict the real impact of changes to the sleep environment, this study supports the proposal that simple, minor changes to the bedroom can promote sleep in the elderly.

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Overall, these results suggest that subjective measures of sleep do not allow differentiating cognitively impaired older individuals from those with normal cognition.