Sleep Problems in Aging...
What should you do if an older person complains of not sleeping well at night?
Experts do believe that “normal aging” brings on some changes to sleep. Basically,?older adults tend to get sleepy earlier in the evening,?and tend to sleep less deeply than when they were younger.
So it’s probably not realistic to expect that as you get older, you’ll sleep as long or as soundly as when you were younger.
That said, although aging by itself?does change sleep, it’s also quite common for older adults to develop health?problems that can cause sleep disturbances.
So when your older relatives say they aren’t sleeping well, you’ll want?to help them check for these. Figuring out what’s going on is always the first step in being able to improve things.
And remember, getting enough?good quality sleep helps maintain brain health, physical health, and mood.
Recently, I did a little research to identify the top causes of sleep problems in older adults. In this article, I’ll share what I found out. I’ll also tell you about what approaches have been proven to work, to help treat insomnia and sleep problems in older adults.
Sleep problems due to an underlying medical problem.?Although older adults do often suffer from what’s called “primary” sleep disorders, many sleep problems they experience are “secondary” sleep problems, meaning they are secondary to an underlying medical condition whose main symptoms are not sleep related.
Disclaimer:?The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate.
Thank you …Common health conditions that can disrupt sleep in older adults include:
Heart and lung conditions which affect breathing, such as heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Gastro esophageal reflux disease, which causes heartburn symptoms and can be affected by big meals late at night
Painful conditions, including osteoarthritis
Urinary problems; this can be caused by an enlarged prostate or an overactive bladder
Mood problems such as depression and anxiety
Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
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Medication side-effects
If an older person is having difficulty sleeping, it’s important to make sure that one of these common conditions isn’t contributing to the problem. Treating an underlying problem — such as untreated pain at night — can often improve sleep. It can also help to talk to a pharmacist about all prescription and over-the-counter drugs, to make sure that these aren’t contributing to insomnia.
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Snoring,?Sleep Apnea, and other forms of Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders.
Sleep-related breathing disorders (“SRBD”; it’s also sometimes called sleep-disordered breathing)?is an umbrella term covering a spectrum of problems related to how people breathe while asleep.
Sleep apnea is a common condition which is important to diagnose since it’s been associated with many other health problems (especially in middle-aged adults). In sleep apnea, a person has frequent pauses in their breathing during sleep.
The most common form is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), in which the breathing pauses are due to obstructions in the breathing passages. OSA is often associated with snoring. A less common form is central sleep apnea, in which the breathing pauses are related to changes in the brain.
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How common it is: The likelihood of having sleep-disordered breathing disorders goes up with age. It’s also more common in men, and in people who are overweight.
Why it’s a problem:?Studies have found that untreated OSA is associated with poor health outcomes including increased mortality, stroke, coronary arterYou can also ask the doctor about further evaluation if you’ve noticed a lot of daytime sleepiness.
?To be diagnosed, you’ll need to pursue polysomnography (objective sleep testing) either in a sleep lab y disease, and heart failure.
What to do if you’re concerned: The key to successfully stopping sedatives for sleep is to very slowly taper the drug under medical supervision, plus add cognitive-behavioral therapy or other sleep-improving approaches if possible.
For more on this topic, and for a handy (and research-proven) consumer handout that helps older adults stop benzodiazepines.
Mindfulness meditation…
More effective than “sleep hygiene,” to improve the sleep of older adults with a variety of sleep disturbances. Older adults assigned to mindfulness completed a weekly 2-hour, 6-session group-based course.
Local in-person courses to learn mindfulness are often available; search online to find one near you. They may also be available at certain senior centers.
Several Smartphone based apps propose to help people with mindfulness. I personally have used Headspace in the past and liked it.
Managing Director at DAYALIZE
3 年A sleep disorder that can affect those who travel quickly across multiple time zones. Jet lag is a temporary sleep disorder. It occurs when the body's internal clock is out of sync with cues from a new time zone. Cues can include light exposure and eating times. Fatigue and difficulty concentrating are symptoms. Medication and light therapy may help.
Managing Director at DAYALIZE
3 年Many over-the-counter (OTC) medications that make people sleepy are also a problem, because most of them are “anticholinergic,” which means they interfere with a key neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. A very commonly used anticholinergics is diphenhydramine (brand name Benadryl), a sedating antihistamine that is included in most night-time analgesics, but many prescription medications are anticholinergic as well. Older adults should be very careful about using anticholinergics often for sleep, or really for anything. That’s because they worsen brain function, and in fact, chronic use of these medications has been associated with developing Alzheimer’s and other dementias. ? Here are a few medications that seem to be less risky, and are sometimes used:?Melatonin is a hormone involved in the sleep-wake cycle. That melatonin improved the sleep of older adults and did not seem to be associated with any withdrawal symptoms. Ramelteon: Ramelteon is a synthetic drug that mimics the effect of melatonin. That ramelteon did not impair middle-of-the-night balance or memory in older adults. Trazodone:?Trazodone is an older weak anti-depressant that is mildly sedating. It has long been used by geriatricians as a “sleeping pill” of choice, as it is not ant cholinergic and seems to be less risky than the alternatives.