Drinking more alcohol or caffeine can keep them from falling asleep or staying asleep. Also, as people age, their sleeping and waking patterns tend to change. Older adults usually become sleepier earlier in the evening and wake up earlier in the morning. Lastly, many older adults take a variety of different medications that may negatively affect their sleep. Many medications have side effects that can cause sleepiness or affect daytime functioning.
Sleep apnea and snoring are two examples of sleep-disordered breathing — conditions that make it more difficult to breathe during sleep. When severe, these disorders may cause people to wake up often at night and be drowsy during the day. Snoring is a very common condition affecting nearly 40 percent of adults. It is more common among older people and those who are overweight. Snoring is caused by a partial blockage of the airway passage from the nose and mouth to the lungs. The blockage causes the tissues in these passages to vibrate, leading to the noise produced when someone snores.
There are two kinds of sleep apnea: obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when air entering from the nose or mouth is either partially or completely blocked, usually because of obesity or extra tissue in the back of the throat and mouth. If these episodes occur frequently or are severe, they may cause a person to awaken frequently throughout the night. This may disrupt their sleep and make them sleepy during the day.
Central sleep apnea is less common. Often, both types of sleep apnea occur in the same person. Obstructive sleep apnea is more common among older adults and among people who are significantly overweight. However, more research is needed to understand the long-term consequences of obstructive sleep apnea in older adults. Two movement disorders that can make it harder to sleep include restless legs syndrome, or RLS, and periodic limb movement disorder, or PLMD.
Both of these conditions cause people to move their limbs when they sleep, leading to poor sleep and daytime drowsiness. Often, both conditions occur in the same person. Restless legs syndrome is a common condition in older adults and affects more than 20 percent of people 80 years and older. People with RLS experience uncomfortable feelings in their legs such as tingling, crawling, or pins and needles. This often makes it hard for them to fall asleep or stay asleep, and causes them to be sleepy during the day.
Although scientists do not fully understand what causes restless legs syndrome, it has been linked to a variety of conditions. Some of these conditions include iron deficiency, kidney failure and dialysis, pregnancy, and nerve abnormalities. Periodic limb movement disorder , or PLMD, is a condition that causes people to jerk and kick their legs every 20 to 40 seconds during sleep. One study found that roughly 40 percent of older adults have at least a mild form of PLMD.
It is somewhat more common in men over the age of It can be harmful if you stop breathing for too long. It also can cause high blood pressure and increase your risk of a heart attack. RLS is a condition in which you have leg pain or discomfort. It occurs when you are sitting or lying down. RLS can make it hard for you to sleep. PLMD is a condition in which you kick your legs while you sleep. If you have a bed partner, they may tell you about it.
PLMD can prevent good sleep and cause daytime fatigue. Talk to your doctor if you have trouble sleeping. He or she will review your symptoms and may run tests to confirm a sleep condition. Your doctor also can prescribe medicine or treatment to help you sleep. Last Updated: September 24, This information provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone. Talk to your family doctor to find out if this information applies to you and to get more information on this subject.
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Caring for a loved one who has dementia is difficult. Learn how to best care for them while also…. Visit The Symptom Checker. Menopause and post menopause. During menopause, many women find that hot flashes and night sweats can interrupt sleep.
Even post menopause, sleep problems can continue. Improving your daytime habits, especially diet and exercise, can help. Older adults tend to take more medications than younger people and the combination of drugs, as well as their side-effects, can impair sleep.
Your doctor may be able to make changes to your medications to improve sleep. Lack of exercise. If you are too sedentary, you may never feel sleepy or feel sleepy all the time. Regular aerobic exercise during the day can promote good sleep. Significant life changes like retirement, the death of a loved one, or moving from a family home can cause stress. Nothing improves your mood better than finding someone you can talk to face-to-face.
Lack of social engagement. Sleep disorders. Restless Legs Syndrome RLS and sleep-disordered breathing—such as snoring and sleep apnea —occur more frequently in older adults.
Lack of sunlight. Bright sunlight helps regulate melatonin and your sleep-wake cycles. Try to get at least two hours of sunlight a day. Keep shades open during the day or use a light therapy box.
In many cases, you can improve your sleep by addressing emotional issues, improving your sleep environment, and choosing healthier daytime habits. Since everyone is different, though, it may take some experimentation to find the specific changes that work best to improve your sleep. Naturally boost your melatonin levels.
Use low-wattage bulbs where safe to do so, and turn off the TV and computer at least one hour before bed. If like to read from a tablet or other electronic device, switch to an eReader that requires an additional light source.
Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, and cool, and your bed is comfortable. We often become more sensitive to noise as we age, and light and heat can also cause sleep problems. Using a sound machine, ear plugs, or a sleep mask can help. Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex. By not working, watching TV, or using your computer in bed, your brain will associate the bedroom with just sleep and sex.
Move bedroom clocks out of view. The light can disrupt your sleep and anxiously watching the minutes tick by is a surefire recipe for insomnia. Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. They found that, once again, the older people felt sleepy at different times from the younger people and had different timings of slow-wave activity in the brain. The decrease in the hormone melatonin as we get older might affect sleep patterns Credit: Getty Images.
He believes that in middle age the processes underlying the oscillations of slow-wave sleep weaken, making it harder to stay asleep, and on top of that, in older age the stronger circadian rhythms weaken because changes in body temperature and the release of the hormone melatonin weaken.
Support for a role for the impact of circadian rhythms on the disruption of sleep in older people, comes from brand new data obtained using a smartphone app called Entrain, developed by the researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to help people adjust their light levels at different times of day in the hope of combatting jet lag.
Users of the app are asked about their typical sleep patterns and can choose whether to share that data the researchers. Five thousand people from around the world did, which has provided a snapshot of global sleeping habits of people of different ages. Among the young people there was a range of early risers and night owls, but the older group was more homogenous.
Most woke early and went to bed relatively early. In this study it was the men in their 40s who seemed to get the least sleep, which is unusual. But the finding that older people sleep at more specific times suggests that there is a narrower range of times in which people past retirement age are able to get to sleep and stay asleep. So changes in the body clock stop older people getting to sleep and keep older people awake, maybe, then, it is a myth that they need less sleep.
Instead the lack of sleep in the night is causing sleepiness in the daytime, hence the need for a nap to make up for the lost sleep. A mid-afternoon nap might be needed because of the lack of sleep during the night Credit: Getty Images.
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