Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG), Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford.
Sociol Health Illn. 2012 Nov;34(8):1215-29. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01468.x. Epub 2012 Apr 4.
Poor sleep is known to impact on health and wellbeing in later life and has implications for the ability of older people to remain active during the day. Medical treatments for chronic poor sleep have primarily included the regular, long-term prescribing of hypnotics, which are known to impact on older people's health, cognitive function and quality of life. Therefore, recent policy and practice has focused on reducing such prescribing, on encouraging older people to stop taking long-term hypnotics and on finding alternative, non-pharmacological ways to manage poor sleep. However, little research has been undertaken to understand the perspectives of older people who choose not to seek professional help for their poor sleep, despite the potential impact of poor sleep on their health and ability to remain active. Through in-depth interviews with 62 older men and women living in their own homes in England, this article explores the factors that deter older people from seeking professional help for their poor sleep. We argue that these are located in their perceptions of the normativity of poor sleep in later life, their beliefs about prescription sleeping medications and their desire to maintain control and autonomy over their everyday and night lives.
睡眠质量差已知会影响晚年的健康和幸福感，也会影响老年人白天的活动能力。长期以来，慢性睡眠质量差的医疗治疗主要包括定期长期服用催眠药，而催眠药已知会影响老年人的健康、认知功能和生活质量。因此，最近的政策和实践重点是减少此类处方，鼓励老年人停止服用长期催眠药，并寻找替代的非药物方法来管理睡眠质量差的问题。然而，几乎没有研究来了解那些尽管睡眠质量差对他们的健康和保持活跃的能力有潜在影响，但选择不寻求专业帮助来改善睡眠质量的老年人的观点。通过对居住在英格兰自己家中的 62 名老年男性和女性进行深入访谈，本文探讨了促使老年人不愿寻求专业帮助来改善睡眠质量的因素。我们认为，这些因素源于他们对晚年睡眠质量差的规范性的看法、他们对处方睡眠药物的信念以及他们对日常生活和夜间生活的控制和自主的渴望。
