بررسی تأثیر یک دوره تمرین در آب بر کیفیت خواب مردان سالمند

Introduction: Elderly population is growing in developing countries and sleep quality is one of the most common problems facing the elderly. The present study investigated the effect of an aquatic exercise on sleep quality in male elders. Methods: Thirty elderly male subjects randomly participated in this study. The subjects were randomly divided in two control and experimental groups. First, all subjects completed Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Questionnaire then, experimental group participated in aquatic exercise three days a week for six weeks. The control group were asked to continue their daily activity. After the training, both groups again completed the Pittsburgh Questionnaire. Data analysis was performed by paired and independent samples t-test. (P≤0/05). Results: The results showed that aquatic exercise had significant effect on sleep quality of the experimental group (P<0/001), while in the control group who had not participated in aquatic exercises, no significant changes were observed (P=0/55). The results also showed that there is a significant difference (P<0/001) between the average score of mental general health of experimental and control group after the exercise while in the pre test no significant changes were observed (P = 0/648). Conclusion: As the study results reveal, it appears that aquatic exercise is effective in improving sleep quality in older men and can be considered as an effective intervention.