SLEEP, SLEEP-DEPRIVATION, AND DAYTIME ACTIVITIES - A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF THE EFFECT OF EXERCISE ON SLEEP

We tested the hypothesis that exercise would improve subjective sleep quality and activity in depressed elders. A IO-week randomized control led trial was utilized. Participants consisted of a volunteer sample, aged >60 with a diagnosis of major or minor depression or dysthymia. A total of 32 subjects aged 60-84 years with a mean age of 71.3 +/- 1.2 years was used. Intervention consisted of a supervised weight-trainin g program three times a week or an attention-control group. Main outco me measures were Pittsburgh Subjective Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Lik ert Scale of Subjective Sleep Quality arid Quantity, Paffenbarger Acti vity Index, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Beck Depression Inventor y (BDI), Hamilton Rating Scale of Depression (HRSD), and the Medical O utcomes Survey Short Form 36 (SF-36). Results showed that exercise sig nificantly improved all subjective sleep-quality and depression measur es. Depression measures were reduced by approximately twice that of co ntrols. Habitual activity was not significantly increased by exercise. Quality of life subscales significantly improved. In a forward stepwi se multiple regression, percent improvement in GDS and percent increas e in strength remained significant predictors of the improvement in to tal PSQI score (r = 0.71, p = 0.0002). In conclusion, weight lifting e xercise was effective in improving subjective sleep quality, depressio n, strength, and quality of life without significantly changing habitu al activity.