[Institutionalized elderly: chronological organization of daily routines and sleep quality].

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, which aimed to identify the perception of nursing home elderly residents related to the chronological organization of their daily routines and to their sleep quality. The study was conducted with 37 elderly (14 women and 23 men, mean age of 75 years) who lived in a long term care facility located in the municipality of Campinas-SP, Brazil. The results showed that 81% of the elderlies had complaints compatible with poor sleep, but 70% of them reported that they had good sleep quality when directly questioned about it. All elderlies adequately realized the chronological organization of their routines, but this perception did not appear to contribute to the good sleep quality, as most of them had complaints compatible with poor sleep. It becomes evident that nurses should perform detailed assessment of sleep quality in order to minimize or prevent these problems and their possible consequences.