Sleep is an essential requisite for healthy aging; unfortunately nurse clinicians and nurse researchers too frequently fail to evaluate sleep in older adults. Misinformation that poor sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness are an integral part of the aging process act as a barrier to the provision of optimal care. Nurses are in a pivotal position to identify patients with sleep disorders, provide an environment that is conducive to sleep, and investigate interventions to help improve sleep in older adults. Nurse researchers need to include an assessment of sleep in studies in older adults that focus on health promotion, disease preven- tion, caregiving, symptom management, self-management of chronic illness, and palliative/end-of- life care.
Choosing the correct instrument is a critical component in the assess- ment of sleep disturbances in older adults for researchers and clinicians. While the use of a self-report measure such as the ESS may be the most appropriate instrument to measure this patient symptom, determination of the risk for a potential mechanism for the excessive sleepiness, such as OSA, is also important. Furthermore, while risk of OSA can be evaluated with a Berlin or OSA50 questionnaire, the diagnosis and treatment of OSA requires use of objective tests such as PSG. Likewise, insomnia symptoms and evaluation of response to an intervention such as cogni- tive behavioral therapy may be evaluated with the ISI or the PSQI; how ever, the addition of objective measures such as actigraphy can also be beneficial. In conclusion, there are reliable and valid instruments that are available for the evaluation of sleep. Use of these instruments, as ap- propriate, can improve the assessment of older adults.