Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T06:37:14.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A gendered lifecourse examination of sleep difficulties among older women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

RUTH B. WALKER ,
MARY A. LUSZCZ ,
JENNY HISLOP  and
VIVIENNE MOORE
RUTH B. WALKER*
Affiliation:
Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
MARY A. LUSZCZ
Affiliation:
Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
JENNY HISLOP
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
VIVIENNE MOORE
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
*
Address for correspondence: Ruth B. Walker, SA Community Health Research Unit, Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia. E-mail: ruth.walker@flinders.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that understanding and addressing the high prevalence of sleep difficulties in older women requires going beyond a purely physiological focus to address the role of social contextual pressures and demands. We take a gendered lifecourse approach to explore how sleep difficulties have evolved and how their management might reflect the position of older women in society more broadly. We conducted in-depth interviews with 12 oldest-old (average age 86) community-dwelling women who currently experienced sleep difficulties. Five themes emerged from the analysis: significant life stages; contingent lives; daily concerns in relation to ageing; attitudes and responses of women and general practitioners; and stigma and sleeping pills, which provided a conceptual framework through which to explain the reality of sleep difficulties for these women. For all women, sleep difficulties were not related to physical aspects such as pain or discomfort, but were largely shaped by demands associated with family relationships at different times in the lifecourse. Furthermore, our findings suggest that responses by women themselves, and health professionals, reflect a sense of stigma around sleep difficulties and use of sleeping pills. More emphasis on the social contextual explanations underpinning sleep difficulties might lead to better prevention and treatment of such problems, and increase quality of life.

Keywords

ageinggendersleepolder womenlifecoursequalitative methods
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , February 2012 , pp. 219 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ancoli-Israel, S. and Cooke, J. R. 2005. Prevalence and comorbidity of insomnia and effect on functioning in elderly populations. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 53, 7, S264–71.Google Scholar
Andrews, G., Clark, M. and Luszcz, M. A. 2002. Successful aging in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging: applying the MacArthur Model cross-nationally. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 4, 749–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arber, S., Davidson, K. and Ginn, J. 2003. Gender and Ageing: Changing Roles and Relationships. Open University Press, Maidenhead, UK.Google Scholar
Arber, S., Hislop, J., Bote, M. and Meadows, R. 2007. Gender roles and women's sleep in mid and later life: a quantitative approach. Sociological Research Online, 12. Available online at http://www.socresonline.org.uk/12/5/3.html [accessed 13 February 2011].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2003. Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings. Cat. No. 4430, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006. Health of Older People in Australia: A Snapshot, 2004–05. Cat. No. 4833, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.Google Scholar
Beeson, D. 1975. Women in studies of aging: a critique and suggestion. Social Problems, 23, 1, 52–9.Google Scholar
Bianchera, E. and Arber, S. 2007. Caring and sleep disruption among women in Italy. Sociological Research Online, 12. Available online at http://www.socresonline.org.uk/12/5/3.html [accessed 13 February 2011].Google Scholar
Brabbins, C. J., Dewey, M. E., Copeland, J. R. M., Davidson, I. A., McWilliam, C., Saunders, P., Sharma, V. K. and Sullivan, C. 1993. Insomnia in the elderly: prevalence, gender differences and relationships with morbidity and mortality. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 8, 6, 473–80.Google Scholar
Byles, J. E., Mishra, G. D., Harris, M. A. and Nair, K. 2003. The problem of sleep for older women: changes in health outcomes. Age and Ageing, 23, 2, 154–63.Google Scholar
Chambers, P. 2005. Older Widows and the Life Course: Multiple Narratives of Hidden Lives. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK.Google Scholar
Eagly, A. H. 1985. Sex Differences in Social Behavior: A Social-role Interpretation. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Elder, G. H. 1985. Life Course Dynamics: Trajectories and Transitions, 1968–1980. Cornell University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ezzy, D. 2002. Qualitative Analysis: Practice and Innovation. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Australia.Google Scholar
Foley, D., Ancoli-Israel, S., Britz, P. and Walsh, J. 2004. Sleep disturbance and chronic disease in older adults – results of the 2003 National Sleep Foundation ‘Sleep in America’ Survey. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 56, 5, 497–502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foley, D. J., Monjan, A., Simonsick, E. M., Wallace, R. B. and Blazer, D. G. 1999. Incidence and remission of insomnia among elderly adults: an epidemiologic study of 6,800 persons over three years. Sleep, 22, S366–72.Google Scholar
Gibson, D. 1996. Broken down by age and gender: ‘the problem of old women’ redefined. Gender and Society, 10, 4, 433–48.Google Scholar
Glass, J., Lanctot, K. L., Herrmann, N., Sproule, B. A. and Busto, U. E. 2005. Sedative hypnotics in older people with insomnia: meta-analysis of risks and benefits. British Medical Journal, 331, 1169.Google Scholar
Groeger, J. A., Zijlstra, F. R. H. and Dijk, D.-J. 2004. Sleep quantity, sleep difficulties and their perceived consequences in a representative sample of some 2000 British adults. Journal of Sleep Research, 13, 359–71.Google Scholar
Hislop, J. and Arber, S. 2003 a. Understanding women's sleep management: beyond medicalization-healthicization? Sociology of Health and Illness, 25, 7, 815–37.Google Scholar
Hislop, J. and Arber, S. 2003 b. Sleep as a social act: a window on gender roles and relationships. In Arber, S., Davidson, K. and Ginn, J. (eds), Gender and Ageing: Changing Roles and Relationships. Open University Press, Maidenhead, UK, 186–206.Google Scholar
Hislop, J. and Arber, S. 2003 c. Sleepers wake! The gendered nature of sleep disruption among mid-life women. Sociology, 37, 4, 695–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hislop, J. and Arber, S. 2006. Sleep, gender and ageing: temporal perspectives in the mid-to-later life transition. In Calasanti, T. and Slevin, K. (eds), Age Matters: Realigning Feminist Thinking. Routledge, New York, 225–46.Google Scholar
James, N. 1992. Care=organization+physical labour+emotional labour. Sociology of Health and Illness, 14, 4, 488–509.Google Scholar
Khan-Hudson, A. and Alessi, C. A. 2008. Sleep and quality of life in older people. In Verster, J. C., Pandi-Perumal, S. R. and Streiner, D. L. (eds), Sleep and Quality of Life in Clinical Medicine. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey, 131–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsey, L. L. 2004. Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Luszcz, M. A., Giles, L., Eckermann, S., Edwards, P., Browne-Yung, K. and Hayles, C. 2007. The Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing: 15 Years of Ageing in South Australia. South Australian Department of Families and Communities. Available online at http://www.socsci.flinders.edu.au/cas/docs/StudyOfAgeing.pdf [Accessed 13 February 2011].Google Scholar
Meadows, R., Arber, S., Venn, S. and Hislop, J. 2008. Engaging with sleep: male definitions, understandings and attitudes. Sociology of Health and Illness, 30, 5, 696–710.Google Scholar
Moen, P. 2001. The gendered life course. In George, L. K. and Binstock, R. H. (eds), Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. Fifth edition, Academic Press, San Diego, California, 179–96.Google Scholar
Moen, P., Dempster-McClain, D. and Williams, R. M. Jr. 1992. Successful aging: a life course perspective on women's roles and health. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 6, 1612–38.Google Scholar
Nebes, R. D., Buysse, D. J., Halligan, E. M., Houck, P. R. and Monk, T. H. 2009. Self-reported sleep quality predicts poor cognitive performance in healthy older adults. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 64B, 2, 180–7.Google Scholar
Neikrug, A. B. and Ancoli-Israel, S. 2010. Sleep disorders in the older adult – a mini review. Gerontology, 56, 181–9.Google Scholar
Ohayon, M. M., Carskadon, M. A., Guilleminault, C. and Vitiello, M. V. 2004. Meta-analysis of quantitative sleep parameters from childhood to old age in healthy individuals: developing normative sleep values across the human lifespan. Sleep, 27, 7, 1255–73.Google Scholar
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners 2000. Benzodiazepines. Available online at www.racgp.org.au/guidelines/benzodiazepines [Accessed February 2011].Google Scholar
Russell, C. 2007. What do older women and men want?: gender differences in the ‘lived experience’ of ageing. Current Sociology, 55, 2, 173–92.Google Scholar
Sontag, S. 1972. The double standard of aging. Saturday Review, 23, 29–38.Google Scholar
Stepnowsky, C. J. and Ancoli-Israel, S. 2008. Sleep and its disorders in seniors. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 3, 2, 281–93.Google Scholar
Stone, K. L., Ensrud, K. E. and Ancoli-Israel, S. 2008. Sleep, insomnia and falls in elderly patients. Sleep Medicine, 9, 1, S18–22.Google Scholar
Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. 1998. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California.Google Scholar
Venn, S., Arber, S., Meadows, R. and Hislop, J. 2008. The fourth shift: exploring the gendered nature of sleep disruption in couples with children. British Journal of Sociology, 59, 1, 79–97.Google Scholar
Williams, K. and Umberson, D. 2004. Marital status, marital transitions and health: a gendered life course perspective. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 45, 1, 81–98.Google Scholar
Williams, S. J. and Bennelow, G. 1998. The ‘dormant body’ – sleep, night-time and dreams. In Williams, S. J. and Bennelow, G. (eds), The Lived Body: Sociological Themes, Embodied Issues. Routledge, London, 171–87.Google Scholar
Windle, A., Elliot, E., Duszynski, K. and Moore, V. 2007. Benzodiazepine prescribing in elderly Australian General Practice patients. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 31, 4, 379–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed