Getting older means you sleep better, not worse, study shows

Older people often complain about sleeping poorly as a sign of aging. Turns out that sleep improves during an adult’s lifetime. A new study in the March edition of SLEEP analyzed 150,000 responses to questions about sleep issues. The adults with the least complaints about sleep disturbances and daytime tiredness were in their 80s. Sleep complaints in general declined over the years, with a slight uptick in middle age.

Researchers said the results challenge conventional beliefs. They said physicians tend to ignore sleep complaints among older adults as a normal part of aging. Granted, there are contributing factors like illness and depression that affect slumber. But those things aside, older folks should be feeling good about their sleep, the study said. If not, they need to talk to their doctor.

Read more blog posts about sleep issues with older adults. Or learn more about sleep and growing older.

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Eye lens discoloration linked to sleep problems

If you are experiencing sleep problems as you get older, it may be due to natural eye lens discoloration, a new study shows. The study was published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP. Researchers found that as the eye lens that absorbs blue light becomes more discolored with age, the risk for insomnia increases.

The study involved 970 volunteers. They all had their eyes examined by lens autofluorometry. This non-invasive method determines how much blue light is being transmitted into your retina. Blue light is the part of the light spectrum that influences your normal sleep cycle by triggering the release of melatonin into the brain. Melatonin is the hormone that signals to your body when it’s time to be asleep or awake.

Volunteers were considered to have a sleep disorder if they said that suffered from insomnia often or if they bought sleeping pills in the last 12 months. About 82% of the volunteers confirmed that they had insomnia and used sleep medication.

Researchers used this data to find out that if the levels of blue light transmitted into the retina are low due to discoloration, there is a higher risk for sleep problems. Higher rates of sleep disorders were found in older volunteers, women, smokers, and diabetics.

Sleep quality improved after cataract surgery. As of yet, there is no other method that can improve the transmission of blue light into the retina.

Photo By: Emiliano

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Mid-Life Sleep Changes May Accelerate Cognitive Decline

New research published in the journal SLEEP
shows that middle-aged adults who have negative changes in sleep duration may experience a decline in cognitive function comparable to four to seven years of aging. The findings suggest that poor sleep can accelerate the aging process and lead to dementia at an earlier age.

The study involved more than 5,400 London-based public employees ages 45 to 69. The researchers used a series of questionnaires and tests to examine the participants’ sleep habits and cognitive function over a span of approximately five years.

Results show that the study participants who began sleeping less than six hours per night scored lower on tests for cognitive reasoning, vocabulary and overall cognitive function.

People who moved to sleeping an unusually long amount of hours – more than eight per night – had an even worse outcome. Long-sleepers had lower scores on all of the cognitive function tests except for short-term verbal memory.

The reason why long-sleepers had a worse cognitive outcome is unknown because the study relied on questionnaires to determine sleep length. It’s possible that the subjects who reported more than eight hours had poor quality of sleep due to frequent wakings.

Sleep apnea has been linked to a cognitive decline that is often mistaken for dementia. People with sleep apnea may wake hundreds of times per night without even knowing it. As a result, they may feel tired and “foggy-headed” the next day. Common treatments such as CPAP can reverse the brain tissue damage caused by sleep apnea and reverse cognitive impairment.

A small decline in memory is a normal part of the aging process and is common in much older adults. As the study shows, when found in middle-aged adults, memory problems and overall cognitive decline can be a red flag for sleep apnea or unhealthy sleep habits.

Invest in your long-term health by making six to eight hours per night a priority. If you are still fatigued most mornings you may want to consult a sleep specialist and get tested for sleep apnea or other sleep disorders.

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