Abstract
Background: Sleep is important for health and quality of life in the elderly, and sleep disturbances are reported to be associated with many of the adverse medical conditions.
Purpose: This research was carried out to evaluate the effect of inhalation of lavender oil on sleep quality of nursing home residents.
Methods: A questionnaire was used to evaluate sociodemographic characteristics and sleeping properties of the 30 volunteers, enrolled. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was applied as a pre- and posttest to measure sleep quality of individuals who inhaled lavender oil drops on the pillows every evening for a week before sleeping.
Results: Before and after aromatherapy, the mean Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score of the nursing home residents was
= 6.0 +/- 5.1 and
= 2.6 +/- 3.4, respectively, whereas statistically significant difference was not observed for independent variables. Cronbach [alpha] reliability coefficient of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale was found to be 0.816.
Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The results indicated an improvement of sleep quality of nursing home residents after the application of aromatherapy with lavender oil.