Less Sleep In Oldage : A Myth

By Super Admin

Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 15:25

Elderly people need less sleep as they age is a myth, a sleep and memory expert has reported.

According to Prof Sean Drummond, older adults need same amount of sleep as the younger ones and sleeping less could lead to a decline in memory.

Prof Drummond said because the older people found it difficult to sleep it was assumed they needed lesser sleep. But this should not be reasoned as they need less sleep this can damage their health and brain ability.

"The ability to sleep goes down as you age but it is a myth that older people need less sleep. Older adults benefit from getting as much sleep as they get when they were in their 30s. This varies from person to person but whatever you slept when you were 35 should be the same from 75, " says Prof Drummond.

The quality of sleep may decline but they must maintain the quantity. This will have relevance to age related cognitive decline.

Prof Drummond conducted a test on 33 older adults, averaging 68 years of age which resulted that insufficient sleep severely affected the brain.

The study showed that the lesser the volunteers sleep, the less likely they were to memories a list of unrelated nouns.

Prof Drummond said: "People think that they can survive on less sleep but cognitive tests say otherwise. Seven to eight hours seems to be the optimal for longevity.
"Less than six hours has the effect of reducing their ability to carry out tasks and remember things.

He added: "Getting older adults to get back to the sleep they had when they were younger could be very useful in reducing cognitive decline."