Aging Begins at 30

Sleep in the Elderly

Nearly a third of our life is spent asleep. Infants spend most of the day asleep. With natural aging there is evolution to the lighter, slightly shorter, less deep and more interrupted sleep of old age. Eighty percent of the elderly say they wake refreshed.

Thirty-eight percent of elderly take one nap a day and only 6% take more than one. Seventy percent sleep 30 minutes but this lengthens to 60 minutes over age 80. Naps do not detract from the subsequent night's sleep. Half of the world naps and calls it a siesta.

Many "insomniacs" compare their disturbed sleep to their own standards and not to valid normal data. The proper question is "Are you rested?"

Sleep can be divided into REM (Rapid Eye Movement) "dreaming" sleep (about 25%) and non-REM sleep that contains the "deepest" 15% of the total sleep cycle. Many suspect that REM sleep relaxes the mind and non-REM sleep relaxes the body.

Sleep disorders can be characterized as: difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep (insomnia), excessive sleep (hypersomnia), sleep-wake (circadian) disorders, and unusual behavior during sleep (parasomnia). Many things upset sleep: losses, medicines, diseases, and changes in Circadian rhythm. Many body events are timed to repetition in 24-hours ("circa," meaning about and "dies" meaning a day). Sleep is one of them. Travel with time zone changes upsets the rhythm temporarily.

Mental problems that cause sleep disturbance are three times more common in younger adults. The commonest psychiatric problem affecting sleep in the elderly is depression.

Sleeping pills may stop working after two weeks and it can take several weeks to recover from their effects. They can also exacerbate sleep apnea, repeated 10-second periods of stopped breathing. If you are on pills, reduce the dose by a quarter weekly. Beware of being hooked on sleeping pills in the hospital, where users increase from 17% to 50%. Exercise works better than pills.

Good sleep hygiene means the same bedtime, later rather than earlier, and the same waking time. Get enough exercise and avoid alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine anytime and excessive fluid in the evening. If you get stomach acid reflux or pain, treat them before you settle. If you're overweight, work on losing weight--you'll sleep better when you're slim.

Good sleep adds to the quality of life. If you're not sleeping, you need to try to assess the cause and just a very few of you may need pills.

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See related Patient Topics Brain and Nervous System, Lungs and Breathing or Sleep Disorders.

See related Provider Topics Brain and Nervous System, Lungs and Breathing or Sleep Disorders.

All contents copyright © 1992-2004 the Author(s) and The University of Iowa. All rights reserved.

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