Restorative Sleep

The Restorative Sleep program is the second signature program developed by the Empira consortium. It arose out of discoveries made during the development of our Fall Prevention and Reduction program about the operational factors that contribute to fragmented sleeping schedules and poor sleep for nursing home residents.

Empira recognized that a good night’s sleep is one of the most important gifts we can offer residents. This was discovered during the Fall Program as a root cause for fall. The Restorative Sleep program seeks to promote active engagement during the day and restful restorative sleep at night.

Empira developed the Restorative Sleep program from evidence-based sleep hygiene research studies and consulting with subject matter experts. Using cutting-edge practices to enhance residents’ sleeping and waking patterns, Restorative Sleep has created new best practices outlining how all 24 hours of the day impact residents’ sleep quality.

Taking a multi-pronged approach including clinical, operational, and environmental factors, Restorative Sleep identified the top ten sleep disturbances in nursing homes. The practices we developed to reduce these disturbances became the cornerstones of the program.

The top ten sleep disturbances include:

  1. Noise
  2. Light
  3. Sleeping environment
  4. Napping
  5. Medications
  6. Continence needs
  7. Pain
  8. Positioning needs
  9. Inactivity/activity
  10. Diet

We measured the success of the Restorative Sleep program using Quality Indicators and Quality of Life measures to analyze the residents’ sleep quality. The Quality Indicators showed a 13.5% improvement as a result of implementing the Restorative Sleep program. Quality of Life measures showed an aggregate improvement of 1.5%. Empira was also able to use Actigraphy to measure impressive improvements in the areas of napping, night-time disturbances, time in bed over 12 hours, and wake after sleep onset (WASO).

For more information on the Restorative Sleep program, contact Empira today. We offer education and consulting services to help you promote restful restorative sleep at night and active engagement during the day for your residents.