An Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Music Therapy on Quality of Sleep among Elderly in Selected Old Age Home, Salem

Sleep quality is a very important factor in quality of life. Additionally, listening to music, a less costly and possibly a more feasible intervention, is one of the alternative methods proposed to address this problem. The Study was conducted at selected old age homes, Salem. The design adopted was pre experimental (one group pre and posttest) research design. 60 samples were drawn from Henry old age home and Saradha old age home. The level of quality of sleep was assessed by using a Modified Pittsburgh Quality of sleep index scale. Music therapy was implemented for the participants twice daily for 21 consecutive days. Posttest was done on 22th day of intervention. The findings revealed that during pretest 3(5%) of them had good quality of sleep, 29(48.33%) of them had fair quality of sleep and 28(46.67%) of them had poor quality of sleep, whereas in posttest 27(45%) of them had good quality of sleep, 25(41.67%) of them had fair quality of sleep and 8(13.33%) of them had poor quality of sleep. The pretest (O₁) mean score was 28.30 + 4.89 and the average posttest (O₂) mean score was 25.15+ 5.37. The calculated t value 10.45 at 0.05 level of significance was significantly higher than the table value 1.96 0.05 level of significance which shows that music therapy was effective in improving the quality of sleep. Hence H₁ was retained. Music therapy is a nonpharmacological and less expensive method of relaxation therapy, which promotes the mind body interaction and ultimately improves the quality of sleep.