Everyone deserves a good night’s rest. Be it you are a child, teenager, male, female or older in age. Quality sleep keeps you healthy and alert. As people age, some conditions that affect them hinder the quality of sleep that they may be getting at night. These conditions result in them being fatigued most of the time.
For our older generation, getting them checked by a doctor to know what the condition is and how they can solve or manage it to aid sleep is crucial to getting their beautyrest. Some of the common conditions are listed below.
Sarcopenia affects
As a person ages, they get a condition known as Sarcopenia. It is the loss of muscle mass due to natural aging. This condition leads to someone not being able to do day to day activities that require muscle strength effectively. For instance, walking upstairs, lifting heavy objects among others. Sarcopenia also has other adverse effects as restless leg syndrome, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder among others. As the body muscles keep on deteriorating some of these conditions rise up. Older folks with this muscle movement disorders have difficulty sleeping because at night it becomes worse. They experience tingling, pins and needles in their legs at night making sleep impossible.
Other conditions such as the Periodic limb movement disorder cause people to jerk their legs after every thirty seconds to a minute and are rapid at night interrupting sleep. The Rapid eye movement disorder causes the muscles to jitter in a way your sleep is agitated. In the sleep cycle, the most active stage is the Rapid eye movement sleep when dreaming occurs and your muscles don’t move. Hence with such disorders, it affects the whole cycle. Seeking medical attention, minor exercises and relaxation aid a lot in this for older people.
Aging
When most people age they tend to have a different sleep pattern from when they were young. Older people nap more during the day and most times interferes with the quality of sleep they get at night. Others do not have a sleep pattern at all due to the conditions that they have. Older people are light sleepers too because of their interrupted sleep cycle due to age factors. For instance, when you are in Non-rapid eye movement sleep you are in deep sleep, while rapid eye movement sleeps you are in the dream zone. Therefore, older people do not get to the end of the sleep cycle which Non-REM sleep is giving them poor sleep quality.
Alzheimer’s Disease
How Alzheimer affects sleep in aged folks is a special problem. Not only does the disease interfere with sleep habits, but it also alters the sleep pattern for most of the patients. For instance, an Alzheimer patient may yell at night, wake up four to five times at night, sleep for over ten hours or sleep less than five. It is good to be cautious when you have an Alzheimer’s patient to have better sleep and others around them. Consider carrying out some safety measures such as, locking up the medicine cabinet, have grab bars in the washrooms and have clear pathways around the home.
Insomnia
Insomnia has been increasingly common these days among young people but older people get it more often due to age-related issues. When you have insomnia you have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.
Older folks from the age of 55 and above start experiencing insomnia that can last for months or years. Older people suffering from Insomnia are given supplements to assist them to sleep through the night. Though it does not solve the condition, trying relaxation techniques to stop the worries of life that they may be having like huge debts, children or spouses can help. This applies to all people by having a mind shift of attracting sleep at night and making the ability to sleep a habit.
Sleep Apnea
Without a doubt, sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that affects not only older people but also the young generation. According to pulmonologist Dr. Owen Napleton from Snore No More Hub, most people do not know if they have sleep apnea but due to their loud snoring at night and gasping for air. The disorder can be detected with ease. Many older people who experience short pauses in breathing if they are not treated earlier can lead to problems as high blood pressure, memory loss, and even stroke. Adjusting sleep positions can assist to open airways and sometimes minor surgery helps.
Also, a sleep therapy machine, like Airmini can help. It is a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) that sends a constant flow of airway pressure to the throat to ensure that your airways stay open while you sleep. This is an effective solution to unwanted breath pauses associated with sleep apnea.
Other conditions
Older folk’s lack of adequate sleep can be triggered by many other factors. For instance, the medicine they could be taking for other conditions, and also some sort of pain somewhere in the body and others like too many naps during the day. All these conditions whether major or minor increase irritability, depression, forgetfulness, and others have more falls and accidents. Hence, when taking care of an older person, help them manage according to the condition they have to achieve quality sleep at night.
On the other hand, being older and having age-related conditions should not make you tired all the time and hinder a good night sleep. some of the things you can try that assist most people are having a sleeping pattern that includes a certain bedtime routine like reading a book, soaking in a warm bath. Make an effort to have sunlight every day and use your bedroom for only sleeping to set your mind in a like manner.
Older people should also be helped with sleep safety. For instance, have a bottle of water in case you are thirsty at night. Have a telephone next to your bed that has emergency numbers in case you need them at night. Have a lamp, torch or a switch that you can light up the room easily. All this will aid having a safe, restful sleep.