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Healthy
older people sleep as well as young
Alameda
Times-Star, April 7, 2003
It’s not true that people need
less sleep as they age or even sleep much less, but rather that many older
people are robbed of sleep by illness, sleep experts have found. A poll done for the National
Sleep Foundation of adults 55 to 84 concluded that older adults actually
sleep about as long -- seven hours a night -- and more consistently
through the week than younger people. And they're less likely than younger
people to report frequent sleep problems, and slightly more likely to rate
the quality of their sleep as good or excellent. "The fact that a person is
60 or 70 years old doesn't preclude the possibility of sleeping well and
benefiting from this restorative process to remain vital and active,"
said Richard Gelula, the foundation's executive director. "Sleeping
well is vital to aging well." However, experts in sleep say
many studies indicate that sleep patterns do change over time. "On the one hand, many
older adults are sleeping about the same amount as when they were younger,
but many are sleepy or sleeping during the day, and that almost always
means the person is not sleeping enough at night," said Dr. Sonia
Ancoli-Israel, director of the sleep-disorders laboratory at the VA San
Diego Healthcare System. The poll also found that older
people in poor health are much more likely to have sleep problems. Eighty
percent of those with four or more diagnosed medical conditions said they
had a sleep problem, vs. 53 percent of those with no reported medical
problem. According to the survey, people
diagnosed with depression, stroke, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes,
arthritis or hypertension are all more likely than other older people to
have a sleep problem. "Healthy old people
actually tend to sleep pretty well. We're getting a picture that the
frequency of illness, medical or psychological, drives sleep disruption
much more than age," said James Walsh, a sleep specialist at St.
Luke's Hospital in St. Louis and president of the foundation, which
promotes awareness of sleep and health issues. Increasingly, research on people
of all ages with sleep problems is showing that changes in hormone
production, metabolism and other responses to sleep deprivation contribute
to or aggravate a host of medical conditions. "Most age-related diseases
will affect sleep, and will be affected by sleep," said Dr. Virend
Somers, a specialist in heart disease and hypertension at the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minn. "For example, painful conditions like arthritis
or back pain will affect how patients sleep by causing arousal during the
night. "Disease affects sleep
quality, and sleep quality affects the disease." Walsh said that while it's clear
"poor sleep increases the burden of illness on some people, we don't
have enough information yet to say that if we prevent insomnia in someone
with heart failure, their heart condition will improve or not deteriorate
as fast. But we have plenty of reason to believe that how they feel and
function, their quality of life, will improve." Walsh said despite the emerging
link between sleep and health, "only a small fraction of the many
reported sleep complaints of older adults are actually diagnosed and
treated. There are millions of elderly victims of the stereotype that they
shouldn't expect to sleep as well, or need to sleep as much, as they get
older, and we need to change that misperception."
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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