Sleep and Aging
Helena Polansky
University of South Florida
Sleep and Aging
The process of sleeping evolves within a person’s life as they age. Generally speaking, sleep is necessary for both one’s physical and mental health. It acts as a restorative exercise for the brain and serves as a vessel through which the brain receives, sorts, and maintains memories. There are certain direct correlations between one’s health and the amount of sleep that they get. For example, those who are over the age of 45 require more than six hours of sleep per night in order to lower their risk of stroke, heart attack, dementia, immune deficiencies, and weight gain. Considering this information, it is interesting to note that there is an inverse relationship between technology usage the hour before bed and the amount of quality sleep that a person experiences. In order to explore how health and sleep changes with age, the sleep patterns of two individuals will be compared: Helena Polansky, USF Psychology Student, representing a younger demographic; and Constance DiLetto, retired, representing an older demographic.
Tracking two weeks of sleep, Helena Polansky, female, aged 22, documented an average of 7 hours during the first week and an average of 6.9 hours the second week. As a full-time student who works at the university she attends, it logically follows that she would have the opportunity to sleep more on the weekends versus the weekdays; this is, surely enough, seen in her statistics. The data available regarding Helena’s sleep patterns are quite detailed because she wears a Fitbit sleep tracker to bed every night. Although Helena appears to meet the average sleep requirements for a female her age, upon further inspection, she still does not get the appropriate amount of restful sleep. She tends to wake up many times throughout the night; however, her Fitbit data reports that she wakes up in the middle of the night for extremely prolonged periods roughly half of the week. This act splits her sleep data in two, indicating that her sleep cycle has been disrupted, resulting in her experiencing a disproportionate amount of light sleep and wakeful periods. The amount of deep sleep and REM that she undergoes, according to the Fitbit data, is very minimal. Helena self-reports that some factors which contribute to her having a good night’s sleep are: her many household pets not disturbing her, the bed being comfortable, the temperature of the room not being too hot, the ability to sleep in through the morning, eliminating napping during the day, and maintaining the quietness and darkness of her room. At least 10% of the population experiences some degree of insomnia (Lichstein et al., 2001). While Helena may not necessarily fall into the category of an insomniac, she does exhibit some of the symptoms.
Helena believes that, with age, her sleep patterns will become more consistent due to the fact that she would encounter less work-related stress, more instances in which she would experience comfort by sharing a bed with a partner or pet, and more health issues which could cause fatigue. On the topic of health issues, Helena believes that increasing health issues with age may cause her to require more sleep. This is, in fact, commonly found in older individuals and it is called Secondary Insomnia (Lichstein et al., 2001). Secondary Insomnia describes the relationship between a physical ailment and insomnia. For example, if an older person experiences chronic pain of some kind, the pain may distract them from the process of falling asleep, and then when they do eventually sleep, the pain may wake them in the middle of the night. If this cycle continues throughout the night and on a nightly basis, they could end up developing insomnia. Despite this, Helena indicates that she expects her bedtime and wakeup times to become more consistent with age. This may be true in part. It has been established that, while older people may go to bed and wake up at more consistent times, it is a normal part of aging for them to experience a reduced ability to actually initiate sleep (Mander et al., 2017). Meaning, they may lay down to sleep at a consistent time, but remain awake for much longer.
Constance DiLetto, female, aged 72, also tracked two weeks of sleep. She documented an average of 3.3 hours of sleep during the first week and 3.1 during the second week. Having a bachelor’s degree, she was a kindergarten teacher before she retired seven years ago. Following her retirement, Constance developed depression and anxiety because of her drastic decrease in responsibilities and increase in sedentary behaviors. She has been married for fifty years and lives only with her husband and small dog. Similarly to Helena, she sleeps more throughout the weekend versus the week. This can be attributed to the fact that her husband, who is not yet retired, does not need to wake up for work during the weekends. In order to combat the restlessness she experiences throughout the night, Constance does not consume high amounts of sugar or caffeine past lunchtime. Additionally, she makes the deliberate choice not to exercise past the afternoon because she does not want to over-stimulate her body and contribute to her difficulty sleeping. She and her husband previously allowed their dog onto the bed at night, but she found that even the dog’s slightest movement would wake her, so she began crating her dog overnight.
Constance was diagnosed with insomnia, but chooses to treat it only with the natural supplement melatonin. Along with 30-60% of older adults, she describes her sleeping pattern as unpredictable and troublesome: falling asleep after many hours of trying, waking up a multitude of times through the night, and then finally waking for the day after only a few hours of rest (McCurry et al., 2007). During the day, Constance experiences chronic fatigue, memory loss, and cognitive decline. Deep sleep, otherwise known as Slow Wave Sleep (SWS), fosters the development of memories and cognitive function (Scullin et al., 2012). True to Constance’s experiences, not enough hours of sleep limits the amount of SWS and will negatively affect an older person’s cognitive function and memory, specifically concerning the hippocampus-dependent memory activities (Mander et al., 2017). Older populations are more vulnerable to depression and anxiety than other populations for a variety of reasons, which can make determining the cause of their insomnia difficult, as insomnia can be caused by both internal and external illnesses (McCurry, 2007).
Helena and Constance experience sleep very differently in most ways. Constance gets, on average, 4 hours less sleep than Helena does. It can be assumed that her sedentary lifestyle is, in part, due to the daily fatigue, which results from insomnia. Helena’s business hour commitments require her to be awake at a consistently early time, and the responsibilities of a full-time student can very easily seep into the late hours of the evening. That said, it is logical to infer that she tends to “make up” for her limited week night sleep during the weekend nights. When comparing Helena’s future sleep projections with Constance’s experiences, it is clear that sleeping with a partner or pet might not necessarily bring comfort and, consequently, an increase in sleep. Conversely, Constance attributes her nighttime arousals with her husband and dog’s movements. While it may be true that Helena may experience less work-related stress as an elderly woman, she may be susceptible to the depression and anxiety that Constance, along with many other elderly people, has encountered.
Getting an adequate amount of sleep is important for all ages because it is crucial for cognitive function and general health and wellness. The obstacles facing Constance are not unlike those forcing a large portion of the elderly. It seems counterintuitive for a group of people who have more time on their hands to end up getting less sleep nightly, but the more one researches the issue, the patterns become clear. Aging results in a plethora of physical and mental health issues for many elderly folks, which inevitably influences sleep patterns. With more research executed regarding this unique issue, there is no doubt that it can be overcome.