Is a Good Night’s Sleep for Seniors Important?

Happy New Year!

Now that the holiday furor has settled down for most of us, I would like to share with you that I often hear my senior friends discussing how much sleep they are NOT getting. Or, that they don’t NEED much sleep.

It turns out that it’s not a good thing when we are sleep deprived at any age. In his book “Why We Sleep“, neuroscientist and sleep expert, Matthew Walker, gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. According to his research, sleep helps our ability to learn, regulates our appetite, assists with our well being and immune system. It affects our emotions, and metabolism. Walker further suggests we can utilize sleep to improve our energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, to name a few. He also says that sleep slows the effects of aging. The list is much longer than what I have shown here.
According to a blog post I read, the less senior citizens sleep, the faster their brains age. I also learned that seven hours of sleep daily was perfect for cognitive function. In addition, sleep for senior citizens is important to provide time to heal from other health related issues.

Some articles suggest that seniors should go to bed earlier as they age because their body clocks change and are adjusting to earlier bed and wake up times. However, some seniors continue going to bed late as they did in their younger years. This often results in not getting enough sleep.

I looked further for help in developing better ways to get a good nights sleep. Take a look at the various suggestions I found on the Dr. Oz website, and prepare to relax.