Effect of Sleep Hygiene Education on Comfort and Sleep Quality in Menopausal Women

The decrease in estrogen levels in the body during menopause can lead to sleep disturbances by disrupting serotonin metabolism, which plays an important role in regular sleep. Considering the increase in life expectancy, the duration of time women will spend in menopause is also increasing, making the understanding of menopause physiology and potential management strategies highly important for women's health. One of the most important factors in managing insomnia is sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is defined as the principles and practices that improve sleep quality. Additionally, during menopause, using the comfort theory to recognize unmet comfort needs, collecting data on these needs, providing interventions, and ensuring the individual's comfort at the highest level are responsibilities of the nurse. To achieve this, the nurse needs to determine the individual's comfort level before providing care, then assess their physical, psychosocial, sociocultural, and environmental comfort needs as a whole. This research is designed as a randomized pre-test post-test control group study to evaluate the impact of Kolcaba's comfort theory-based sleep hygiene education on comfort behaviors and sleep quality in menopausal women. The research will be conducted between July and December 2024 at Zeynep Kâmil Women's and Children's Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Gynecology Outpatient Clinic, in Istanbul. The study population will consist of menopausal women who visit the Gynecology Outpatient Clinic. The sample will include premenopausal women who meet the inclusion criteria for the study. The sample size in the study was planned to be 60 (intervention group = 30, control group = 30), calculated using the G Power version 3.1 program with α = 0.05, 1-β = 0.95, and effect size = 1.00, considering the possibility of sample loss. Data will be collected using the "Personal Information Form (Appendix-1)", "General Comfort Scale (Appendix-2)", and "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality In