Results from a recent Centers for Disease Control study report that, contrary to popular belief, sleep quality improves with age. Telephone survey data were gathered from 155,877 adults about sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and daytime tiredness. Demographic information included race, income, education, mood, general health, and frequency of medical checkups. Analysis of the information showed that elderly adults actually report sleeping better than younger adults.
Health problems and depression were reported to impact sleep quality for all age groups. Results support that stress, underlying depression, or illness impacts quality of sleep more so than biological age. In fact, taking these issues into consideration, older adults are no more likely to report sleep problems than younger persons in their 20s to 30s. People between 40 and 59 years old did report increased problems with sleep quality. Michael Grander, a research associate at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, attributes this alteration in sleep quality for women, at least, as being most likely related to menopause, work stress, and the issues involved with raising children. Grander says, for men, the alteration in sleep in the age group is most likely associated with workplace stress, increases in heart disease, and high blood pressure. In the years following sleep problems for this age group, sleep difficulties steadily decline with age.
On the other hand, Grander qualifies that our perception of sleep disturbances may alter with aging. He notes that sleep problems may not seem to be very significant when they are occurring with other age-related health problems. Whatever the reason, this study does alter our long-held assumptions of sleep and the elderly. We need to examine how our choices of nursing care during sleep hours really do impact our elderly patients, and if our choices are based on evidence and not preconceived ideas.
Source: Sifferelin A. March 1, 2012. Study: sleep gets better with age. TimeHealthland. Available at http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/01/study-sleep-gets-better-with-age/. Accessed March 5, 2012.
Submitted by: Robin E. Pattillo, PhD, RN, CNL, news editor at [email protected].