Abstract
With the growing appreciation that sleeping habits interact with health and aging, it is now imperative to increase our understanding of exactly how sleep and age interact, influence one another, and contribute to a person's overall health and wellness.
Highlights
With the growing appreciation that sleeping habits interact with health and aging, it is imperative to increase our understanding of exactly how sleep and age interact, influence one another, and contribute to a person’s overall health and wellness
This may be especially so in the case of older adults, a classification by the World Health Organization (WHO) which defines an older adult as one who is above the age of 60, and/or currently considered to be elderly or retired from an occupation by their nation of residence, while appreciating that national and socioeconomic indicators relate to variations in life expectancy and health for the population [3]
As one advances in age, it has been found that they tend to fall asleep later, have reduced time spent within crucial rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and have reduced overall duration and quality of sleep [4]
Summary
Older adults sleeping for less than the recommended minimum of seven-hours per night may face troubling health effects. Poor sleep quality and reduced sleep duration is typical of diagnosable sleep disturbances (e.g., insomnia), and of: Cognitive and memory impairment; bladder dysregulation; impaired hormonal output; mood and other psychosocial disorders; excessive weight gain and difficulty with weight loss; higher prevalence of prescription use; and greater overall pain experienced [9]. Reduced functioning efficiency of the immune system, in turn, may leave a person more susceptible to one or more of several classes of illnesses Those who have fragmented sleep, or sleep for less than is recommended for their age bracket, are more likely to have dementia, heart disease, diabetes, mood disorders, and accidental injuries [12], as well as high blood pressure, obesity, and a higher mortality rate [8]. Sleep serves many regulatory purposes in the body and brain, including improvements in metabolic, immunological, intero thermal, and stress regulation, as well as increased longevity [2,13]
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