IMPROVING SLEEP QUALITY OF ELDERLY PEOPLE WITH HYPERTENSION AT HOME: THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF A RELAXATION WITH ATSIRI OIL AROMATHERAPY

Abstract

Poor sleep quality will cause negative effects on the health of elderly, including those with hypertension. The sleep pattern may change, physiologically or be disturbed by certain conditions. Therefore, several non-pharmacological interventions are needed to improve their sleep quality, such as relaxation and Atsiri oil aromatherapy. This study aims to analyse the effect of the combination of these two therapies on the elderly’s quality of sleep in Kadu Village, Jatigede district, in Sumedang, West Java Province. This study used the Quasy Experimental method with control group. The elderly population were 189 people, with 36 respondents as our samples that were divided into two groups, the intervention and control group. A purposive sampling technique was utilised and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire was used for the pre and post-test. It is found that in the intervention group, before the therapies were implemented, the sleep quality of the elderly was categorised in 6% had good sleep quality and 94% of them had poor sleep quality. After being given the interventions for two weeks, they showed a better the sleep quality, with the results of good and poor sleep quality were 72% and 28% respectively. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test of the intervention group showed the p-value 0.004 (< 0.05). It means that there was a positive effect of relaxation with atsiri oil therapy on elderly’s sleep quality. It is because there several substances in atsiri oil’s extraction that may increase the relaxation hormones like serotonin and melatonin when it was inhaled. In relaxed mind, the elderly tend to feel more peaceful and calmer before sleep.  It is concluded that the use of aromatherapy of Atsiri oil is effective in improving sleep patterns and the results of this study show that relaxation with essential oil aromatherapy has potential to improve sleep patterns in the elderly.