“…above the solar plexus Positive; Visser’s Sleep Quality Assessment; Improved sleep quality | Chen, 1999 [ 21 ] | RCT | Nursing home ( n = 1), N = 84, mean age 79, 61.9% men | Touch: 15 min of acupressure, consisting of 5 min of finger massage and 10 min of acupoint massage between 1 pm and 10 pm 5 days per week for 3 weeks | Positive; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; Significantly more positive sleep including quality, latency, duration, efficiency; reduced disturbances of sleep; and frequencies of nocturnal awakening and night wakeful time. |
Harris, 2012 [ 69 ] | RCT | Nursing home ( n = 4), N = 40, mean age 86, 22.5% men, with dementia | Touch: 3-min slow-stroke back massage at bedtime for 2 nights | None; Actigraphy; No significant increase in minutes of nighttime sleep |
Nelson, 2010 [ 74 ] | RCT | Nursing home ( n = 4), N = 28, mean age 69.5, 57.1% men | Touch: 15-min massage to head, neck shoulders, and back between 8 pm and 10 pm every night and 7 days | None; Observed 3 participants asleep following the intervention |
Reza, 2010 [ 59 ] | RCT (3 groups: intervention, sham, and control) | Nursing home ( n = 1), N = 77, mean age 75.2, 53.2% men | Touch: 3 sessions of acupressure (hands, head, ears, and feet) per week for 4 weeks | Positive; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; Compared to controls, the acupressure group had significantly positive subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep sufficiency, and reduced sleep disturbance. No differences between the sham and control groups. |
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