Study Indicates Older People Just Need Less Sleep
than Young Adults
With the same time in bed, older people take longer
to fall asleep and sleep for less time than younger people do
July 25, 2008 – Older people may need less sleep
than younger adults according to a new study. Those considered “older
people” in this study were between age 60 and 72. When asked to remain
in bed in a dark room for 16 hours over several days, this group slept
for an average of only 7.5 hours per day, while the younger people
averaged 9 hours of slumber.
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Aging News & Information |
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Along with all the other changes that come with
age, healthy older people apparently also lose some capacity for sleep,
according to this new report published online on July 24th in Current
Biology, a Cell Press publication.
"The most parsimonious explanation for our results
is that older people need less sleep," said Elizabeth Klerman of Brigham
and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School.
"It's also possible that they sleep less even when
given the opportunity for more sleep because of age-related changes in
the ability to fall asleep and remain asleep," she added, noting that
the new results apply only to healthy individuals taking no medication
and having no medical conditions or sleep disorders.
The study also found that most healthy people, and
young people in particular, don't get as much sleep as they need.
The idea that sleep changes markedly across the
life span isn't new.
In fact, insomnia is a common complaint among older
people. But whether age-related changes in sleep were due to changes in
social factors, circadian rhythms, or shifts in an internal "set point"
for sleep need or the ability to sleep had remained unresolved.
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Need for Sleep
Does Not Decline with Age
Contrary to the popular belief, the need
for sleep does not decline with old age. While the elderly do
find that their slumber becomes more fitful, they continue to
need about the same amount of sleep that they needed in early
adulthood.
For this reason, older people tend to nap often
during the day. Experts say that the number of nocturnal
awakenings can start to increase as early as the age of 40.
More
on
insomnia in older people. -
Sleepdex, an independent non-profit informational site
>> The National Institutes of Health
Misconceptions about Sleep.
>>
Circadian Cycles and Sleep |
In the new study, Klerman and her colleague Derk-Jan
Dijk, of the University of Surrey in the UK, set out to compare the
capacity for sleep in young people (between the ages of 18 and 32)
compared to older people (age 60 to 72) under conditions that controlled
for circadian rhythms by allowing the chance to sleep during both the
night and the day and by controlling individual choices in sleep
opportunities.
"While humans can sometimes override the
homeostatic set point and not sleep when tired, there is no evidence
that they can sleep when they are not tired," Klerman explained.
Given the same amount of time in bed, older people
take longer to fall asleep and sleep for less time than younger people
do, they found. When required to remain in bed for 16 hours a day, older
people slept 1.5 hours less on average than younger people, they showed.
That age-related decline in sleep included an even split between rapid
eye movement (REM) sleep, which is associated with dreaming, and non-REM
sleep, they found.
Most younger subjects slept for many more hours
during the study than their usual self-selected sleep times. Given the
evidence that insufficient sleep is associated with increased risk of
accidents, errors, and metabolic changes similar to diabetes, Klerman
emphasized that younger people should sleep more.
The findings may also influence treatment for
insomnia in older people, Klerman said.
" If older people believe that they need more sleep
than they can achieve even when they spend extra time in bed, then they
may complain of insomnia: being awake when wanting to be asleep. They
may start using medications needlessly. If they are tired during the
day, they should consider evaluation for a sleep disorder that may be
interfering with their ability to obtain good sleep at night."
Editor’s Notes:
The researchers include Elizabeth B. Klerman,
Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA; and Derk-Jan Dijk, Surrey Sleep Research
Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey,
Guildford, UK.
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