The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Sleep in Community-dwelling Elders with Sleep Disorders / 기본간호학회지

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of laughter therapy on the quality and quantity of sleep in elders with sleep disorders. @*Methods@#This was a quasi-experimental study using a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design with 59 participants and included elders with sleep disorders, The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores of five or more points were 29 in the experiment group and 30 in the control group. The experimental group participated in laughter therapy sixteen times, twice a week for 50 min per session for 8 weeks. @*Results@#The results showed that laughter therapy was effective according to the PSQI (F=86.13, p<.001), total sleep time (F=9.34, p<.001), sleep efficiency (F=45.34, p<.001), sleep onset latency in the experimental group x2=13.77, p=.001, and in the control group x2=11.95, p=.003), number of awakenings (F=31.21, p<.001), light sleep (F=5.09, p=.008), deep sleep (F=15.13, p<.001), and serum melatonin levels (Z=-3.90, p<.001). but rapid eye movement sleep time did not differ significantly between the groups. @*Conclusion@#The results of the study indicate that laughter therapy may be an effective nursing intervention to improve quantity and quality of sleep in community-dwelling elderly.