How Much Sleep Do You Need As You Get Older?
Healing of the body takes place during sleep. Sleep also supports healthy brain function. While you are sleeping, your brain is preparing for the next day. Sleep helps with learning, creativity and making decisions. We all know the phrase to “sleep on it” meaning that by allowing the brain the space to work on the information we have given it, often we awaken with a solution or next step. Sleep also has a function in controlling the hormones involved in hunger; ghrelin and leptin. When you don’t have enough sleep, your hunger controls go out of balance and you tend to eat more.
Whilst individual sleep needs may vary, it is generally agreed that all of us need 7 or 8 hours sleep a night. This is true even as we age. We have been conditioned to think that it is normal to need less sleep as we age but this idea has really arisen because the truth is that many people find it more difficult to experience a full quota of sleep as they age.
According to a study by the National Sleep Foundation based in Virginia, adults between the ages of 26 and 64 need between 7 and 9 hours and after the age of 65, 7 to 8 hours. A study carried out by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center located in Boston, MA and the University of Toronto suggests that as we age, neurons that regulate sleep called the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus slowly die off and that the more of these cells we lose ,the more difficulty we have sleeping. Loss of these cells has been shown to be particularly evident in those with Alzheimer’s Disease, a characteristic of which is often sleep disturbance.
Most people who have sleep issues are already familiar with sleep ecology but as a checklist, here are the things to do or avoid doing if you have a sleep difficulty:
1. Stop watching television or using a computer at least 30 minutes before you intend to go to bed. Blue light emitted from screens and energy efficient lighting affect our biological clock and the body can think it is still daytime.
2. Spend some time outside during the day. Melatonin, which comes into play in darkness and triggers sleep, is increased when we expose ourselves to daylight on a regular basis.
3. Avoid eating a meal within 3 hours of bedtime. Avoid alcohol too. Some people say it helps them sleep but even if it does, it interferes with the quality of that sleep, so ditch the nightcap. A good, wholesome diet helps with sleep.
4. Indulge in some kind of bedtime routine. Half and hour to an hour before bed, take a warm bath, listen to some gentle music, meditate or do other things that signal to your bodymind that you are winding down.
5. Keep your bedroom free of electronics such as televisions and laptops. The negative ions these emit can make the environment uninviting to sleep.
6. Sleep in darkness. Having a room that blocks out any external light encourages the brain to secrete melatonin.
7. Have a regular bedtime as well as a regular getting up time and maintain these at the weekends too.
Many people have inadvertently created an ongoing sleepless night situation. When we worry about whether or not we are going to sleep, the repetitive cycle of negative thoughts about it effectively act as “self-hypnosis” and sleeplessness becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you are someone with sleep difficulties, for the sake of your health aim to get this sorted out by visiting a sleep a specialist, or consider hypnotherapy.
Extract from my Ebook “Perfect Ageing: Simple Ways to Stay Younger for Longer”