2022 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 37-45
In this study, for the purpose of clarifying the relationship between wake after sleep onset and the number of diapers changed at night for elderly people who can express urine intentions, data collection of excretion status, sleep variables, etc. was carried out for 2 weeks for 5 elderly women in long-term care insurance facilities. The subjects were 90 to 97 years old, with NM scale 37-27, N-ADL 29-15, combined toilet and diaper use during the day, no complaints of urges to urinate at night, and diaper changes performed punctually twice a night. The subjects were awake at night for the median time ranged from 33.0 to 114.5 minutes, with three of the subjects being awake for less than 80 minutes on an average, which is the standard value for this age group. These three subjects were confirmed to experience a decrease in nocturnal time spent awake per hour until 10 PM and an increase after 5 AM, but this tendency was not witnessed in the remaining two subjects. Data on sleep state before and after diaper changes was obtained 28 times per subject over the two weeks, with wakefulness before replacement and sleep state after replacement attained two to four times for four of the subjects and eight times for the remaining one. The tendency to awaken varied with the subject, and it was found that nightly diaper changes affected both falling asleep and waking up during the night.
