Sleep Disorders in the Older Adult – A Mini-Review
- 9 September 2009
- journal article
- review article
- Published by S. Karger AG in Gerontology
- Vol. 56 (2), 181-189
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000236900
Abstract
Approximately 50% of older adults complain of difficulty sleeping. Poor sleep results in increased risk of significant morbidity and mortality. The decrements seen in the sleep of the older adult are often due to a decrease in the ability to get needed sleep. However, the decreased ability is less a function of age and more a function of other factors that accompany aging, such as medical and psychiatric illness, increased medication use, advances in the endogenous circadian clock and a higher prevalence of specific sleep disorders. Given the large number of older adults with sleep complaints and sleep disorders, there is a need for health care professionals to have an increased awareness of these sleep disturbances to better enable them to assess and treat these patients. A thorough sleep history (preferably in the presence of their bed partner) is required for a proper diagnosis, and when appropriate, an overnight sleep recording should be done. Treatment of primary sleep problems can improve the quality of life and daytime functioning of older adults. This paper reviews the diagnoses and characteristics of sleep disorders generally found in the older adult. While aimed at the practicing geriatrician, this paper is also of importance for any gerontologist interested in sleep.Keywords
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- Consequences of Comorbid Insomnia Symptoms and Sleep-Related Breathing Disorder in Elderly SubjectsArchives of Internal Medicine, 2006
- Meta-Analysis of Quantitative Sleep Parameters From Childhood to Old Age in Healthy Individuals: Developing Normative Sleep Values Across the Human LifespanSleep, 2004
- Healthy Older Adults’ Sleep Predicts All-Cause Mortality at 4 to 19 Years of Follow-UpPsychosomatic Medicine, 2003
- Treatment of sleep disturbance in Alzheimer's diseaseSleep Medicine Reviews, 2000
- Illumination levels in nursing home patients: effects on sleep and activity rhythmsJournal of Sleep Research, 2000
- Age-Related Changes in Slow Wave Sleep and REM Sleep and Relationship With Growth Hormone and Cortisol Levels in Healthy MenPublished by American Medical Association (AMA) ,2000
- The Occurrence of Sleep-Disordered Breathing among Middle-Aged AdultsNew England Journal of Medicine, 1993
- Periodic Limb M[ovements in Sleep in Community-Dwelling ElderlySleep, 1991
- Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Community-Dwelling ElderlySleep, 1991
- Sleep Disorders and AgingNew England Journal of Medicine, 1990