I heard you lose sleep when you get older. Will that be the case?
Jul 26, 2024
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According to a survey, the average sleep time of the elderly per day is about 9 hours. Compared to the average adult sleeping 7 to 7.5 hours a day, it is rather long. However, considering the results of a study that the elderly take a nap for an average of 1 hour and 20 minutes a day, it is not much different from the sleep time of ordinary adults.
However, sleep disorders are a common problem for the elderly. In a study of the 65-84-year-old population in Korea, 57.7% complained of insomnia symptoms.
Professor Choi Yun-ho of the Department of Neurology at the Catholic University of Korea's Incheon St. Mary's Hospital said, `People spend as long as one-third of their lives sleeping, which restores body and mind fatigue and stress and maintains biorhythm"If you can't sleep properly, not only will your body lose its vitality, but it can also lead to a decrease in immune function and a risk of chronic diseases."
▶ Sleep disorders in old age are quality (質) problems, not sleep time
Sleep disorders are a broad concept that includes not getting a healthy sleep, not being able to wake up well during the day even if you get enough sleep, complaining of drowsiness, and having difficulties due to disturbed sleep rhythm.
What is more important than sleep time is the quality of sleep. Even if you sleep only 3-4 hours, it is not a disease if you sleep well and have no problems in your daily life. On the contrary, even if you sleep eight to nine hours, your body is not refreshed, you are tired enough to interfere with your daily life, sleepy during the day, and your concentration is poor, it can be a sleep disorder.
The most common sleep disorders in old age are insomnia and circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Insomnia refers to difficulty falling asleep or waking up often even if you fall asleep, and waking up too early in the morning to cause sleep deprivation. During the day, you will experience fatigue, drowsiness, and loss of motivation.
Cycle Rhythmic Sleep Disorder is associated with biorhythmic. In old age, the biological clock, or cranial nerve function, which manages the biological rhythm, decreases, and the circadian rhythm is slightly faster than that of ordinary adults. As a result, the sleeping pattern also changes, and most fall asleep early between 7-9 p.m. and wake up between 3-5 a.m.
Professor Choi Yun-ho said, `Melatonin, a sleep-inducing substance that helps you sleep, starts to be produced after sunset and is most often secreted between 2 and 4 a.m., and in the case of the elderly, the circadian rhythm changes and melatonin secretion is not smooth, so the quality of sleep decreases over time.'
In addition, sleep disorders include excessive sleep and narcolepsy, snoring and sleep apnea, lower limb anxiety syndrome, and REM sleep behavioral disorders. Excessive sleep is a case of complaining of excessive sleepiness during the day even though you slept for at least seven hours at night. Drowsiness is a sudden fall into sleep due to uncontrollable drowsiness, which can also occur in unpredictable situations such as eating, talking, or walking.
Snoring is a very common physiological phenomenon, but 75% of people with snoring are known to be accompanied by sleep apnea, which stops breathing during sleep. If respiratory abnormalities occur more than five times per hour during sleep, it is diagnosed as sleep apnea. The more severe sleep apnea is, the more frequent it breaks and the more difficult it is to supply oxygen to the body. As a result, it causes severe fatigue during the day, feeling as if you didn't sleep, morning headache, lethargy, decreased concentration and memory, and depression. If sleep apnea persists for a long time without treatment, it can lead to serious problems such as cognitive impairment such as dementia, cerebrovascular disease, heart disease, or diabetes.
Lower extremity anxiety syndrome refers to a state in which it is difficult to fall asleep due to constant discomfort in the limbs, especially in certain areas of the legs, when falling asleep. The discomfort varies from patient to patient, such as the feeling of electricity flowing and the feeling of bugs crawling, which improves through movement. In severe cases, it is sometimes expressed as pain.
REM sleep behavior disorder is a disease in which muscle tension increases abnormally in the sleep stage of REM sleep, which leads to dreams, and excessive movement and abnormal behavior related to dreams. Older people are more common in men and are more associated with various neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
Professor Choi Yun-ho said, `One of the reasons we should be wary of sleep disorders in old age is because of our association with dementia"There are also studies that show that patients with sleep disorders have a 49% higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a representative dementia-causing disease, than those who do not."
▶Insomnia is directly related to health problems...You can shorten your life
There are various causes of insomnia. Elderly people are less active during the day than younger people, which eventually leads to sleep disorders during the night. Insomnia can also be caused by psychological factors such as depression and anxiety, and various physical diseases such as chronic respiratory diseases, reflux esophagitis or gastric ulcer, chronic pain, morbidity or urinary incontinence, high blood pressure or cardiovascular diseases also cause sleep disorders. In addition, older people take more drugs than younger people, and insomnia is often a side effect of drugs. When admitted to an elderly facility or hospital, sleep disorders can occur due to environmental changes.
Professor Choi Yun-ho said, "'Insomnia is not only difficult for the elderly in itself, but it also has a detrimental effect on their overall health.' `The elderly who sleep less than 7 hours a day are inevitably more vulnerable to health than the elderly who get enough sleep for more than 8 hours a day. Failure to sleep well may result in weakening immunity and eventually shortening life expectancy, he warned.
▶ Prevent insomnia by improving lifestyle that interferes with sleep
To prevent insomnia, lifestyle habits that interfere with sleep should be improved. First of all, it is recommended to reduce caffeine intake that is high in coffee and black tea, especially after late afternoon. You should also avoid smoking or drinking before going to bed. Alcohol initially feels like it induces sleep, but it often wakes you up and worsens sleep apnea. Also, check whether the medicine you are currently taking is related to sleep and if it can be changed, replace it with other ingredients. Buying and taking sleeping pills because you can't sleep can eventually result in a deep sleep disturbance.
Sun exposure during the day will allow your biological clock to function normally and help you sleep soundly. Regular exercise also helps you sleep well. Naps should be reduced to a minimum.
Professor Choi Yun-ho advised "Nothing is more important than sufficient and proper sleep with regular meals and exercise for a long healthy life."
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