A Virtual Exercise Program On Sleep Time And Patterns Among Rural Older Cancer Survivors

Prevalence of insomnia among adults 60+ years living in rural areas ranges from 12-20%. Among clinical populations, up to 50% of cancer patients experience insomnia due to cancer, side-effects of cancer treatment, and associated mental health changes. Exercise can be a strategy to improve sleep patterns. In recent years, virtual exercise has become an expanding method to reach underserved populations. PURPOSE: To examine the impact of a 12-week virtual exercise program on daily sleep time and patterns among rural older cancer survivors. METHODS: A total of 50 cancer survivors living in the rural areas were recruited to participate in the study and wore an accelerometer on their dominant wrist over a 24-hour period for 7 consecutive days at Baseline to capture their total sleep time (TST, hours/night), time to sleep (TTS, min), sleep efficiency (% TST relative to total time in bed), number of awakenings, and average length of awakenings (ALA, min) along with moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA, min/d). Over a 12-week intervention period, each participant met virtually 1:1 with a cancer exercise specialist on a weekly basis. At post-intervention (PI), participants again wore accelerometers for a 7-day period. Paired samples t tests were employed to examine the changes in sleep variables from Baseline to PI. RESULTS: Four participants withdrew from the study. One participant did not wear the device during sleep at baseline, another participant had two valid days at PI; thus, excluded from data analyses. Results of n = 44 participants (84.1% females; age = 67.73 ± 8.03 years; body mass index = 30.47 ± 6.52 kg·m-2) revealed a significant increase in MPA from Baseline (139.96 ± 76.92 min/d) to PI (164.30 ± 76.95 min/d), t(43) = 2.86, p = .007. There were no changes in daily TST (6.03 ± 2.39 to 5.72 ± 1.52 hours/night), TTS (23.39 ± 13.02 to 25.03 ± 16.15 min), sleep efficiency (87.9 to 88.2%), number of awakenings (8.78 ± 4.40 to 9.01 ± 4.91 times/night), ALA (2.44 ± 0.92 to 2.48 ± 0.91 min/awakening) from Baseline to PI (p > .05). CONCLUSIONS: Despite the increase in MPA, daily sleep patterns remained unchanged, and daily TST was less than the recommended duration of 7-8 hours/night. Further research is needed to define adequate thresholds of exercise intensity, frequency and type to improve sleep patterns among rural older cancer survivors. Supported by: UW-Eau Claire-Mayo Clinic Research Collaboration