Farhad Rahmani Nia - Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Guilan, Guilan, Iran
Maryam Ghasemi - Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science, Islamic Azad University of Rasht

Background & Objective: This study seeks to examine the effect of walking program on quality, quantity and some sleep-related physiological parameters in elderly women. Methods: Our population of this study included 30 healthy women (age: 64 ± 2.96 years, height: 160.03 ± 5.05 cm, Weight: 67.36 ± 10.26 kg) of Tehran that after voluntarily registration to participate in this study, were randomly divided into two experimental (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups. Experimental group participated in walking training program (8 weeks / 3 days a week / 30-40 minutes per session) with 60 to 75 percent of heart rate reserve. Sleep quality and quantity of sleep were evaluated before and after the exercise program. Also, sleep-related physiological variables (TG, LDL, HDL, total cholesterol), were evaluated before training program and 48 hours after completion of the training period by blood samples. Result: The results showed that there are significant differences in the rate of change of TG, LDL, HDL and TC after the training period compared with the control group (P<0.05) Also, the significant difference was observed to pre-test in other physiological variables measured in the study, except HDL in training group. But, the variables had no significant difference compared to the pre-test in the control group. In addition, both the quality and quantity of sleep in the experimental group was significantly improved compared to the pre-test and control groups, but in the control group had no significant change compared to the pre-test. Furthermore, there was a significant inverse correlation between sleep quality and TG, and quantity of sleep and TC of subjects (P<0.05). Conclusion: Although in most physiological indices and indices of sleep studied in this study, there was no relationship, but it was shown improved sleep can be associated with improvement in some of these indicators. In addition, the training program used in this study could improve lipid and lipoprotein profiles, which are associated with cardiovascular disease.

Sleep, Lipoprotein, Exercise, Aged