Objectives Concerning the high prevalence of insomnia disorder in the elderly population and its effect on their quality of life, this study aimed to examine the effect of Holy Quran recitation on the quality of sleep of older adults in nursing homes.
Methods & Materials The participants of this clinical trial study were 65 older people from a nursing home in Malayer City, Iran. They were randomized to either the experimental (n=33) or the control (n=32) group. The participants in the experimental group listened to Holy Quran recitation for 20 minutes before sleep every night for 4 weeks. The data were collected using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index and were analyzed using parametric (dependent and independent samples t-test) and non-parametric (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney) tests and covariance analysis.
Results The Mean±SD ages of the older people were 73.97±9.91 years in the experimental group and 64.53±12.75 years in the control group. The results of covariance showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups after listening to the Holy Quran recitation (P<0,001). Furthermore, in the experimental group, the Mean±SD scores of total quality of sleep (from 9.27±3.37 to 6.60±3.87) and its two subscales of habitual sleep efficiency ( from 2.94±0.35 to 0.63±1.25) and daytime dysfunction (from 0.33±0.54 to 0.39±0.50) improved significantly (P< 0.05).
Conclusion The results of the present study showed that listening to the Holy Quran recitation could be a useful factor in the promotion of the quality of sleep in the elderly. Therefore, using this easy, cost-effective, and valuable strategy is recommended for the improvement of the quality of sleep among the elderly.