The Challenges of Sleep in the Later Years of Life
In last week’s SciSport, we discussed how sleep is the #1 most important recovery tool for developing motor skills, physical recovery, and memory storage. We explored the process of getting tired and how this is disrupted by caffeine. We ended with how the process of sleep is shifted several hours into the later part of the night during our teenage years.
This week in the SciSport blog, we continue with how sleep changes during those later decades of life. This information comes directly from an awesome book called “Why We Sleep” by Dr Matthew Walker. I’ve been reading it, and it’s full of useful information to help you dial in your sleep game.
Age Related Fallacy #1 - “You really don’t need that much sleep when you’re older.”
This phrase is spoken by too many people in their later years of life struggling with healthy sleep patterns. It’s a vicious cycle. By mid-afternoon, your eyelids are feeling heavy, you take a nice nap, and then you’re lying awake at 11:30pm struggling to get to bed. By the time you fall asleep, it’s just a few hours until early morning and you’re already awake and struggling to fall back asleep.
Age-related timing differences
Last week we discussed the build up of adenosine in the brain throughout the day is what makes us feel tired. The tired feeling is informally called “sleep pressure.” Melatonin is then released in sync with large amounts of adenosine. The melatonin sparks the chain reaction of events that signals our brain for sleep.
In teenagers this signaling doesn’t occur until much later in the night. Likewise, the signaling for waking does not occur until mid-morning. In older individuals, this process moves in the opposite direction on the clock. Senior living communities are fully aware of this shift in the waking and sleeping hours, many times offering dinner service as early as 3:30pm in the afternoon. Restaurants capitalize on the opportunity offering “early bird specials.”
In our 60’s and older individuals, the brain begins to grow tired much earlier in the day. The problem thus lies in the mid-afternoon nap. Often the sleep pressure builds up so much that one cannot help but lean back in the recliner for a mid-day snooze. Unfortunately, this greatly reduces the sleep pressure, resulting in being unable to fall asleep at a decent hour at night. In direct correlation with natural signaling to fall asleep early, our brain signals us to wake up much earlier at this stage. Many struggle with being unable to fall asleep, then finally drifting off, waking up around 4-5am and being unable to fall back asleep. This results in chronic sleep deprivation and can be detrimental to our brain health.
less non-rem sleep
When we are chronically sleep deprived, our memory loses its edge. We become forgetful, become slower learners, and retain less memories. With so many of our older aged adults chronically getting less sleep, it’s no wonder these side effects develop. Unfortunately they get passed off as a result of aging.
Another unfortunate side effect of aging is the actual changes in sleep cycles. As we age, we are limited to only a fraction of the non-REM sleep that we obtained in our teen years. It’s possible to get up to 90% less non-REM sleep in the later decades of life. With less non-REM sleep, our brain is not processing memories or storing information appropriately. When we get less than a full 8 hours, we miss out on the little bit of non-REM sleep cycles we have left. This prohibits us from being able to transfer new memories and information built up in the day into our long-term memory storage.
Big picture:
In the older years of life, the brain signaling for sleep wants you in and out of bed much earlier than younger decades. If you can fight off the mid-afternoon nap, you may find yourself asleep on a healthy and natural early to bed and early to rise schedule, providing you with a full 8 hours of restful and restorative sleep! By understanding these changes in the brain, we can work in sync with our body, providing it with the recovery it needs.
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References:
Walker, M. (2018). Why we sleep. Penguin Books.
Disclaimer: This SciSport blog post is a summary of an article printed in an academic research journal. The purpose of this blog post is to provide readers with academic and educational content in an easy-to-understand format. We take no credit for the material and knowledge presented, and we encourage readers to take a look at the original source provided in the References section.
