Sleep News

Getting older? You may sleep less

Older people may get a lot less sleep than their younger counterparts, though this does not mean that such individuals will struggle to stay awake during the day, it has been asserted.

Scientists at the University of Surrey published their results in Sleep, involving 110 healthy adults without sleep complaints and watching over a normal eight-hour sleep night followed by two nights with or without sleep disruptions and a further night of recovery.

Sleep was evaluated by polysomnography while researchers looked on throughout the experiment.

While older adults got less total sleep than younger counterparts, scientists found that the older group showed fewer symptoms of daytime sleepiness, though took and extra 5:30 minutes longer to fall asleep after lying down, in comparison to younger adults.

Derk-Jan Dijk, the professor of sleep and physiology at the University of Surrey in England, said that the findings of the study "reaffirm the theory that it is not normal for older people to be sleepy during the daytime".

He continued: "Whether you are young or old, if you are sleepy during the day you either don''t get enough sleep or you may suffer from a sleep disorder."

The NHS accepts that while most healthy adults sleep for seven to nine hours a night, most people over 70 need less than six hours of sleep a night and tend to be lighter sleepers.

Posted by Michael Ewing