The risk of falls among women age 70 and older is greater in those who sleep five hours or less per night, a new study shows. The study also found that the use of sleep medications doesn’t seem to influence the link between amount of sleep and fall risk.

 

Researchers from the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute of San Francisco measured sleep, sleep efficiency (percentage of time in bed spent sleeping) and frequency of falls in nearly 3,000 women 70 and older. The women averaged 6.8 hours of sleep per night, Health Day reports.

 

The average number of falls one year after collection of the sleep data was 0.84, but 18.4 percent of the women had two or more falls. The study found that women who slept five hours or less per night were more likely to have two or more falls than those who slept more than seven hours a night.

 

Researchers also found that women with a sleep efficiency of less than 70 percent were 1.36 times more likely to have a fall than women with a sleep efficiency of 70 percent or more. Women with 120 minutes or more of wake time after sleep onset were 1.33 times more likely to fall than those who were awake less than 120 minutes after sleep onset.

 

This study reinforces the benefit of a full night’s sleep and may be useful information for clients.

 

So what would you do if your mother fell while you were at work?  Would she have to lay there all day until you finished the day?  Would she lay there until you called her and no one answered the phone?  Imagine your mother falling in the shower, unable to get up, unable to turn the water running water off.  As the hot water runs out and your mother lays there in a stream of cold water, will you get there in time before the unthinkable happens?

 

These story lines may sound cruel and even unthinkable, but they happen!  We can help.  Home Instead Senior Care has teamed up with Philips LifeLine to provide 24-hour coverage when you can’t be there.  At the touch of a button, an emergency responder can assist your mother when she does fall, and you’ll be contacted as well so you can rest assured that mom is being looked after even when you can’t do it.  And why not use a CAREGiver from Home Instead to stop in and visit a few days a week to be sure the fridge is stocked, to monitor medications and safety risks, and to be an extra set of eyes and hands while you’re working or on vacation?

 

Call us today and we’ll give you a coupon code that can waive the activation fee for a LifeLine system in your mom’s place of residence.  You can reach us at 248-203-2273 or visit our website at www.homeinstead.com/283.