Journal of

Introduction and purpose: Sleep is an important part of every body’s life which may be influenced by factors such as age. Medication is a useful method to overcome sleep disorders among elderly. However, non-drug approaches such as music therapy can easily self-improve quality of sleep in elderly with minimal side effects. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of music-therapy on quality of sleep among retired elderly men in Isfahan 2011.

Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental research. The population of the current research was elderly from Isfahan city petroleum’s Retirement Association in which only 44 samples met the eligibility criteria to be included in the study. Data were collected by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Using randomized block design, samples were divided into two groups of intervention and controls. The intervention group consisted of 18 men aged 60 to 75 years old who received music therapy for 45 minutes per night in duration of three months. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17 and Shapiro test, Mann- Whitney, paired t-test and independent t-test at a significance level of p<0.05 were used.

Findings: The mean score of quality of sleep at baseline was 10.44 and 9.33 for intervention and control groups, respectively. However after the follow-up, the mean score of quality of sleep was 9.22 and 5.94 for intervention and control groups, respectively. The results showed that there is a significant difference (p<0.05) between the mean score of the quality of life between the two studied groups after intervention.

Conclusion: This study showed that music therapy can improve quality of sleep among elder men. Therefore, we recommend implementation and promotion of music-therapy education for elderly by medical team and nursing staffs who are working at the geriatric field.