Best Retirement Living: Sleep Study at The Osher Inn Assisted Living
by Katie Druan, Life Enrichment Coordinator at The Osher Inn
A good night’s sleep will cure most anything that ails you. It is a common experience that the way a person feels during the day is in direct relationship to the amount and quality of sleep that they had the night prior. To explore the topic further, The Osher Inn Assisted Living at The Cedars hosted Occupational Therapy students from the University of New England for a four session program that involved residents keeping a simple sleep log and having interactive discussions with the students about what can be done to improve the quality of sleep. The program is optional and open to all Osher Inn residents.
After recording in their log, residents will have a better idea of their individual sleep patterns as well as learn tips and advice for waking up refreshed. By recording the number of times and the hour that you awoke during the number of night and what the reason was for being awake, a picture of your sleep habits become clearer. The students look at how much time you spend in bed during the day while you’re not asleep, your activity level, the time you go to bed, how long it takes to fall asleep and how many/how long of naps you take.
Once the log is completed, life styles can be adapted to promote a better night sleep. Some of the adjustments that residents will likely find that they need to make after the completion of this course is to adjust the timing of their medicine, look at their night time snacking, adjust the timing of their daily nap, increase daily activity level and use their bed only for sleeping to help train the body. When all is said and done, The Osher Inn at The Cedars will be sleeping much more soundly thanks to this partnership with UNE. For more information on The Cedars call Kelly Prucnal at 207-221-7100.