ABSTRACT Objective: to compare the effectiveness of an educational intervention mediated by a booklet with verbal nursing guidelines in improving sleep quality in older adults. Method: this is a randomized, single-blind clinical trial, carried out with 126 older adults, of which 62 were allocated in group 1, who received health education using an educational booklet, and 64 in group 2, who were exposed to health education with verbal nursing guidelines. Sleep quality was verified by the Pittsburgh Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale and variable minutes that it takes to sleep. In order to compare the pre and post-tests, within the group, the Wilcoxon and chi-square tests were used. Status change was assessed using McNemar’s chi-square test. To compare groups, Mann-Whitney and chi-square were used. The significance level was 5%. Results: older adults in both groups showed improvement in sleep quality (p > 0.05) after the interventions. There was no statistically significant difference between the interventions. Conclusion: the educational intervention mediated by a booklet and verbal nursing guidelines were equally effective in improving older adults’ sleep quality. RBR-993xf7.