The Importance of Sleep for Older Adults
By: Brad Hankins
Sleep is important at any age, think back to when you had a newborn and neither of you slept more than an hour or two. As we age sleep shifts from being more about rest and recovery to an important part of our physical and mental wellbeing https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/sleep/sleep-and-older-adults .
All adults require basically the same seven to nine hours of sleep each night. However, as we age multiple factors can affect the amount and quality of sleep. The first sleep change is we typically go to bed earlier and rise earlier than younger adults. This is, by itself, is only problematic if your bedtime is out of sequence with others in your house who’s evening activities may keep you awake or only lightly sleeping. The bigger issue is quality of sleep, i.e. REM vs non-REM sleep.
The two major types of sleep are rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM. Both are connected to patterns (waves) of electrical activity in your brain. Non-REM sleep is when your brain in is quietest while REM sleep is when brain activity more resembles being awake and is when dreams usually occur. REM and non-REM sleep occur in cycles, usually three to five each night. REM sleep helps you store memories while non-REM sleep improves focus and energy.
Sleep is a complicated body function involving brain chemicals, feedback loops in your nervous system, brain function and overall health. Homeostasis https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/homeostasis, or our body’s self-regulating mechanism, helps our sleep patterns by allowing us to be more physically and mentally balanced both day and at night. Brain chemicals and hormones play a big role in the sleep cycle, especially melatonin, a hormone your body releases as it gets dark outside and makes you feel sleepy. Chemicals such as adenosine are at play here as well, with the overall path to improved sleep being a better balance of these chemicals and happier homeostasis.
Quality sleep helps protect against disease and keeps our brains, heart and lungs healthy. Restful sleep also improves our ability to create new memories, helps us solve problems quickly, improves decision making, and improves our general mood and life outlook. While not getting enough sleep, or sleeping poorly, can affect our health and increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure as well as increasing fall risk,
What can help both the quality and quantity of sleep? Please consider the following suggestions:
- First, ask your medical provider to review your medications for side effects that may affect your sleep. This not only the individual medications but the interactions of two or more medications when combined.
- Avoid caffeine late in the day. This varies greatly from person to person and most of us know what that time of day is. However, be wary of evening caffeine in the form of chocolate, beverages and sneaky snacks.
- Establish a sleep schedule by going to bed and waking the same time each day, including when traveling and on weekends.
- This can be a tough one, avoid napping in the evening or late afternoons. Naps are good, there is nothing wrong with naps, but consider limiting them to 10 to 20 minutes and no later than 3:00 PM.
- Time your last meal of the day to no closer than two to three hours before bedtime or limit your last meal of the day to a specific time, say no later than 6:00 PM.
- Limit screen time before bed. This can be another tough one but try experimenting with small steps such as no screens in bed and/or no screens 30 minutes before bed.
- Limit alcohol to three hours before bedtime – even in small quantities.
- Ensure you room is comfortable for sleeping, this includes the amount of light, temperature and ambient noise. Many products are now available to help regulate bed temperature, generate white noise (or block it), or reduce/block light coming through windows.
- Exercise regularly, but not within three hours of your bedtime.
- Establish a bedtime routine that includes a brief brain wind-down such as reading a book or listening to music.
If insomnia or interrupted sleep is a consistent issue, please consult your medical provider. Many medical conditions including sleep arena and hormone imbalances (such as high thyroid levels) can contribute to a poor night’s sleep. Many of these conditions are easily addressed, if your provider has a sleep history to review. Keeping a sleep diary for several weeks will help your provider establish a diagnosis. Include in your diary; the times you went to bed, the times you woke up during the night, if you had night sweats or night terrors, the times of your last meal of the day, and if you had caffeine or alcohol during the day/evening.
A good night’s sleep is foundationally important, how we spend the night directly relates to how we spend our day.
I would enjoy hearing about your fitness journey, please feel free to email me at hankinsb@ssymca.net.
Brad Hankins RN, CPT
