Is Aging Affecting Sleep Schedule: Research Might Find Out Why.  

Can’t sleep at night?  The white noises from the Bluetooth speakers fail to put you to bed? The sleeping position doesn’t provide any comfort while sleeping?

Even if you don’t nap in the afternoon, you can’t sleep peacefully at night. It is time to stop blaming your phones and the mindless doom scrolling through social media because it has been discovered that sleep schedules might be affected because of one’s age.  

Credits: NIDDK

Yes, you read that right.

You may not be able to sleep because of your age. There can be many reasons why one can’t fall asleep right when they hit their head on the pillow. However, recently research has discovered another element affecting the difficulty in falling asleep: Age.  

Studies state that similar to one’s bones getting weak and skin getting more wrinkly as one ages, sleep patterns shift or get prone. This is considered quite normal, given its challenges that can be easily tackled.

How is sleep correlated with age?

Age was and is still considered a factor leading to many problems. From having an existential life crisis to getting a disease, it was always age. Now, sleep is also determined by one’s age. But how is getting sleep hard as one ages?

Humans have a tendency to blame everything on biology, or when it comes to sleep, the fingers are pointed toward the gadgets, but it is not a fact. The study gives an example of an infant’s sleep schedule showing that even when they sleep during the day, they still pass out at night, but as they grow up, their sleep schedule begins to decrease.

Various other studies have also shown that we tend to lose 10-20 minutes of our entire sleep from the age of 20 till we hit our 60s. Sleep physician, Bijoy John compels the statement by explaining that the sleep pattern of a 20-year-old is widely different from that of a 60-year-old, especially with deep sleep.

The study also mentions that lighter sleep works effectively as one ages. Lighter sleep can be described as one of several changes to one’s sleep as they age. Symptoms like breaks in between sleep, more frequent night-walking, etc.

The study shows that there is a reduction in deep sleep patterns giving increased frequency to light sleep and a reduction in REM sleep (rapid eye movement), regarding dreaming.

The study also indicates the lifestyle one follows regarding the sleeping schedule. Researchers and sleep excerpts explain that sleeping problems might also be because of health conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, Anxiety, Alzheimer’s or Depression.

Ways to maintain a healthy sleep habit.

The study comments that sleep disorders can impact sleep at any age, however, it is important to look into the symptoms such as shortness of breath during sleep, snoring, physical pains, kicking one’s feet in sleep, and issues with falling asleep or staying asleep.

Dr Abhay Sharma, ENT and sleep physician advises avoiding lights from the screen close to bedtime because phones harm cognitive ability and change the brain chemistry leading to addiction and causing imbalance in the brain chemistry.

Sharma also mentions that one needs to stay active during the day, rather through physical activities or engaging oneself because this will set a plethora regarding the sleep pattern.   

He also points out that it is necessary to keep a fixed time, even on the weekends, to form a better habit of getting a good sleep.

In conclusion, the research has summed up the worries of not being able to sleep when one ages by stating that a decline in sleep doesn’t happen very quickly and by prioritizing one’s sleep and following a healthy sleep pattern, one can stabilize their difficulty in falling asleep.

It is important to adapt to change while growing up and reaching certain ages and it is completely normal to have a messed up sleep schedule, unless and until it takes a toll on our overall health.