A clinical trial to compare the effects of aerobic training and resistance training on sleep quality and quality of life in older adults with sleep disturbance

OBJECTIVES: To compare the effects of aerobic and resistance training on sleep quality and Quality of Life (QoL) in older adults with sleep disturbance. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An experimental study was conducted on 36 subjects with sleep disturbance of age ≥60 years. The subjects were assessed for sleep quality and quality of life by using Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires. Those who scored PSQI>5 were included in the study and were divided into two groups A and B. Both the groups A and B received warm up and cool down with, aerobic training for group A and resistance training for group B, respectively. The training was given for 40-45 minutes a day, 4 days/week for 4 weeks. Base line and post treatment PSQI and WHOQOL-BREF scores were recorded. RESULTS: Repeated measure ANOVA with Post hoc analysis was done using SPSS software version 16.0. Analysis revealed significant improvement (p<0.05) in PSQI scores within both groups but not between the groups. Post hoc analysis for sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency and sleep duration showed better improvement in resistance training group. Further QoL showed no significant difference between groups for all domains except for domain 3, i.e., social relationship which was found to be better in aerobic training group. CONCLUSION: Resistance and aerobic training improves both quality of sleep and quality of life. But resistance training has better effect on sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency and sleep duration. As both the training has beneficial effects on sleep quality and quality of life. So, either form of training can be used according to the individuals’ functional and medical status to improve sleep quality.