Abstract
Sleep disorders are very frequent in the elderly and it affects health and well-being of older people. Some authors estimate that the prevalence of insomnia in the elderly is very high, close to 60%. Sleep disorders in the elderly are frequent and it causes high demand for care. Some authors think that it will affect a lot in health of older people and those who take care of them. This could bring an increase of institutionalization. With this work we wanted to measure prevalence of insomnia in those chronic and psychogeriatric patients who are in nursing-homes, and which psychotropic drugs are prescribed for control it. In addition, we have studied if there is significant relationship between psychiatric diagnosis, neurologic diagnosis, age or sex, medical comorbidity, and the presence of insomnia.