Effects of Footbath on Sleeping Time in the Elderly

Abstract

Effect of foot bath on sleeping time in 3 old patients (70, 82, 84 years old) was investigated. After 2-days control period, feet were immersed in a water bath containing about 1, 000ppm CO₂ at 40-41°C for 15 minutes at 17:00 for 3 consecutive days. Wrist Mini-motion-logger actigraph was used for recording their activities. The hour for lights-out was 21:00 and that of rising was 06:00. They went to bed between 20:30-20:50 and woke up at 05:30 next morning. In 2 patients, sleeping time at night began to increase on the second immersion day, which continued even on the following 2 days without foot bath. All the patients showed no changes in daytime activities. They were satisfied with foot bath and felt warmth not only in their feet but also in their bodies. No remarkable side effects were observed in the present study. Foot bath is thought to be effective to treat insomnia.