Relaxation technique is a nonpharmacological treatment applied to increase sleep efficiency and the quality of sleep. Hydrotherapy is one of the relaxation techniques and uses warm water to decrease stress and muscle stiffness, as well as to warm the body. The incidence of sleep deficiency among older people in Integrated Community Health Services, Pandak I Bantul, has slightly increased year by year. This research aims to evaluate the effect of hydrotherapy on sleep deprivation among older people.
The research was a quasi-experimental study with a pre–post test design. Purposive sampling was used to enroll 66 older people from the Integrated Community Health Services, Pandak I Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as a sample, and we divided them into two groups: 33 people formed the intervention group, and 33 people comprised the control group. The intervention group did hydrotherapy once a day for a total of 7 days. First, they soaked their feet in warm water for 10 minutes. The water temperature was adjusted according to the body temperature, to approximately 40.0°C–43.0°C. Then, the intervention group took a bath using warm water. The level of sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire. Data analysis was done using the Wilcoxon test.
The mean score for sleep quality in the pretest in the intervention group was 9.04 (standard deviation [SD]: 2.57) and the score on the posttest was 42 (SD: 1.43). The mean score for sleep quality in the intervention group was 4.67, with
According to the results of the present study, it appears that the practice of hydrotherapy is effective in reducing sleep deficiency and hence can be considered an effective method of intervention.