As we grow old, it leaves some impact on our sleep patterns. You can hear various complains from aged people that they wake up in the middle of the night & it’s very difficult for them to go back to bed and fall asleep again.
Experts have revealed that almost 40% of adults suffer from sleeping disorder like insomnia or sleep apnea. In modern days researchers have discovered a relationship between cognitive decline & sleeping disruption.
According to the study conducted by famous psychiatrist Kristine Yaffe, people suffering from sleep apnea or sleep disorder are more prone to grow dementia after a few years.
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Yaffe also said that if the treatment starts early then it’s possible to lower the possibility of cognitive decline.
According to the findings presented at the annual conference of the Alzheimer’s association people whose circadian rhythm is disrupted have a higher risk of dementia. This is also true for those people who keeping tossing and turning in the bed throughout the night unable to sleep.
Psychologist Sonia Ancoli-Israel studies sleep and aging at the University of California, San Diego. Ancoli-Israel points to a variety of techniques to help people literally relearn how to go to sleep.
“We want to take a person who has negative associations with the bed — ‘Oh, my God, I know I’m not going to be able to sleep’ — and turn them around so that they look at the bed and they go ‘Ah, sleep’.
According to psychologist Sonia Ancoli-Israel we need to begin with restricted timing like 5 hours & gently putting 15 minutes additions till we get our suggested eight hours level. Though it’s quite a slow procedure, but is still quite effective.
However to get the result you need to stop taking your computer to the bed, or playing with your iPad or paying bills & most importantly stop watching television while you are on your bed.
When you are having problems in going to sleep, even after twenty minutes (approx), then get out of your bad & watch or read something boring. It will help you to feel sleepy.
According to Ancoli-Israel, whenever we wake up in the middle of the night, we have a tendency to look at our watch. For doing this we need to open our eyes as well as we need to elevate our head to see the clock. It forces you to be completely awake from your sleep. It makes the whole scenario quite problematic for you.
If you need the alarm, cover the clock, she says, or put it under the bed. You’ll still hear it go off.
Another trouble that older people face for not getting enough sleep is natural circadian rhythms change. Our core body temperature which controls our sleep order drops during the night when we feel sleepy & increase during the morning hours & makes us wake up.
These processes modify throughout our lives. Body temperature of teenager’s, lapse in the late evening & it doesn’t make them feel tired till midnight. They usually wake up late in the morning too.
The body clock simply plays differently for the aged people. Body temperature lapse quite early in the evening & also increase quite early in the morning.
Ancoli-Israel also believes that light exposure (during the day hours) helps our body to get a firmer body clock. We know that sun is the best source of light, so early evening walk or late afternoon walk is the best option. It helps to discourage the circadian rhythm as well as rescue people from feeling tired early in the evening, which in turn help them to sleep for longer hours till late morning.
