Our senior years should be a time of rest and relaxation, an easy time to enjoy ourselves and savor a lifetime memories. Without the pressure of work and raising a family, we might imagine that sleep problem would recede. But as all too many senior know, reality often takes quite a different turn. Sleep problem actually increase significantly as we age. In fact, more than half of all senior citizens complain of having problems sleeping.
Sadly, many senior don't seek treatment for sleep problems. They attribute like poor memory, loss of sex drive, and daytime fatigue to the natural process of getting older. Sometimes, that is indeed the case. But, very often, a medical sleep disorder is the real cause. Treating the sleep problem can also lead to starting changes in a senior's life and overall happiness.
Sleep Well
Many things underline sleep among senior citizens. Medical sleep disorders become more common. The increased use of medication may cause side effects, contributing to poor sleep. And seniors suffer more medical and mental condition that can harm sleep. The good news is that effective treatments are available for all these sleep problems. Good sleep is possible at any age. The key is understanding the changes that take place in our sleep need as we age, and then getting to the root cause of problems when they arise.
Several changes occur in normal sleep as we grow older. Deep sleep and dream sleep gradually decrease as we move from late adulthood to old age. We wake up at night more often, even more than the typical 12 to 15 times experienced during young adulthood. Our sleep becomes, therefore, less efficient because we are awake for large percentage of the time we spend in bed. To make up for the less efficient sleep, we often start taking naps. Over time many senior citizens settle into a pattern of two daily naps. One at mid-morning and one at mid-afternoon. This resemble the sleep pattern of infants and young children. But senior are not completely coming "full cycle" and returning to childhood sleep patterns. There are far more differences than similarities. For example, seniors don't need lots of sleep during a 24-hour period, as infants do. In fact, the amount of sleep we need deciles as we age although there is some debate on this point.
For many years, it was though that we needed slightly less sleep as we grew older. In general, people sleep about 30 minutes less as senior citizens than did as young adults. But new thinking is questioning whether sleeping less really means that senior need less sleep. Studies have shown that people fall asleep in the daytime more easily during old age that they did as young adults.
Dr.Samantha Hement is the writer of Insomnia blog and sign up for the free 5 days Insomnia e-course. Read her informative reports about The Secrets of How Doctors Fall Asleep When They Get Insomnia, You've been looking for.
Practiced Good Sleep For Senior Citizens
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