How to Sleep Well for Life

You wake up just as it is growing light outside, a half-hour ahead of your alarm clock. With a sigh, you close your eyes. If only you could go back to sleep.

After a few minutes, you give up, tired, but not sleepy. As you get out of bed, you wonder, "Why am I so tired all the time? I thought people needed less sleep as they got older."

It isn't true. Older adults need just as much sleep as younger ones, usually about eight hours a night. They just have more obstacles to getting the sleep they need.

Sleep Changes
About half of all older Americans suffer from insomnia, or lack of restful sleep. Among older adults, insomnia most commonly appears in the form of frequent awakenings throughout the night or early awakening in the morning.

A number of physiological, age-related changes in sleep patterns are partly to blame. For example, older adults spend less time in the deepest stages of sleep, making it more likely that they will occasionally wake during the night.

Older women, who are 50 percent more likely than men to experience sleep difficulties, often suffer from menopause-induced hot flashes that cause interruptions in sleep. In addition, our biological clocks, or circadian rhythms, shift as we age, causing us to become tired earlier in the evening and wake up earlier in the morning.

Scientists haven't yet determined why sleep patterns change as we age, but they are studying it.

Although the age-related changes in sleep patterns are real, they are usually minor. Dr. Saul Rothenberg, a psychologist at the Sleep Disorders Center of the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, points out that changed sleep patterns are not as important as total sleep time, which still needs to add up to the same amount required earlier in life.