Effect of Warm Foot Bath on Their Sleep Quality and Comfort Level in Elderly Individuals: A Randomized-controlled Trial

The age pyramid of the world population is changing, and as it does so, the percentage of elderly people is rapidly increasing. As one advances in age, it has been found that they tend to sleep latency later, have reduced time spent within crucial rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and have reduced total duration and quality of sleep and sleep-related problems start to occur. The National Sleep Foundation The national sleep federation recommends 7-8 hours of sleep per day for the elderly. However, many elderly report that they sleep less than recommended and have difficulty sleep latency.

Sleeping is a significant action that affects individuals' daily lives as well as their quality of life. Sleep is required to meet the basic needs of daily life and comprises physiological, psychological, environmental and sociocultural dimensions. Sleep quality, which has been considered as increasingly significant in recent years, can be defined as feeling physically-fit, refreshed, and ready for a new day when waking up. Sleep quality consists of several quantitative aspects and measurements of sleep itself, such as the duration before sleep latency, the duration of sleep, the number of times a person wakes up in the night, as well as more subjective aspects such as the depth of sleep and the relaxing characteristic of sleep.

Such sleep-related problems may negatively affect an individual's comfort. Comfort is a basic need that comprises one of the cornerstones of holistic nursing care practice. Accordingly, solving sleep-related problems, increasing sleep quality, and ensuring comfort for the individuals concerned will require comprehensive nursing care. Pharmacological methods are the most commonly used approach in trying to resolve sleep-related problems. However, these methods have been insufficient as they do not provide a complete solution for sleep-related problems. Additionally, the side effects of these methods, which are obligatory for the affected individuals, are numerous, and this has paved the way for the development of non-pharmacological treatment methods. Relevant literature indicates methods such as eye masks, music therapy, massages, alternative and supplementary therapies, aromatherapy, and warm foot bath have all been successfully used to solve sleep-related problems among elderly people, thereby boosting their sleep quality and comfort.

Warm foot bath causes peripheral vasodilation and decreases core body temperatures. A negative relationship was found between core body temperature and inclination to sleep. Individuals' sleep latency decreases when body core temperature decreases thus, individuals' sleep quality and comfort level are increased. Warm foot bath as a non-pharmacological methods is a more practical and less expensive approach when compared with others.

The relevant literature demonstrated that the number of studies examining sleep quality and comfort among elderly people was limited. The literature included some studies that examined the use of relaxation exercises, back-massage practices, aromatherapy, and music therapy to improve sleep quality and comfort. However, the number of studies examining the effect of warm foot bath on sleep quality was found to be limited . The purpose of the trial was to investigate the effect of a warm foot bath on sleep quality and comfort level among elderly individuals with sleep problems. Our primary hypothesis was that the sleep quality of the intervention group would be better after 6 weeks than the control group. The secondary hypotheses were that the comfort levels of the intervention group would be better after 6 weeks than the control group