PT health Life – Prolonged insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders in the elderly. About 48% of elderly people suffer from this disease.
Everyone has trouble sleeping from time to time, but regularly losing sleep can seriously affect your health. As we get older, this can develop into a big problem.
1. What is persistent insomnia?
A person with long-term insomnia will have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Not getting enough sleep will make you sleepy during the day and affect your daily activities.
2. Changes in sleep can occur with aging
As we get older, our body will undergo many changes. Some of them can seriously affect our sleep quality and sleeping habits. The most common sleep difficulties in the elderly include:
- Wake up early.
- Feeling tired at night.
- Woke up many times while sleeping.
- Insomnia.
- As the body ages, it won’t be able to handle the sleep-wake system as well as it used to. This is due to changes in hormones. For example, older people often secrete less of the hormone Melatonin. This is important because Melatonin helps regulate sleep. When we lack this hormone, sleep will be affected.
- The sleep cycle of the elderly is also affected. A sleep cycle will be divided into 4 stages: 2 “light” non-REM sleep stages and a “severe” non-REM sleep stage, finally a moving sleep stage. Rapid eye (REM) sleep before the sleep cycle begins again.
Older people will often spend less time in the “severe” NREM stage. This makes them more likely to wake up while sleeping and be exhausted the next day. Many people describe it as feeling like no matter how much sleep they get, they don’t feel rested, leaving them lethargic and tired during the day.
3. Symptoms of insomnia persist
Besides sleeping “lighter”, we will also typically want to go to bed early and wake up early as we get older. You may also want to sleep more at night and take naps during the day.
Usually, these situations are normal and not anything serious. However, if you experience the following symptoms regularly, you may be suffering from long-term insomnia:
- Having difficulty sleeping even when tired
- Having difficulty sleeping after waking up
- Not feeling rested after sleep
- Feeling irritable or sleepy during the day
- Have difficulty staying awake when sitting still, such as watching TV and driving
- Have difficulty concentrating during the day
- Relying on alcohol or medication to sleep
- Having difficulty controlling emotions
4. Causes of prolonged insomnia
There are many factors that can cause prolonged insomnia in the elderly:
- Normal changes in sleep habits caused by aging.
- Medications, including antidepressants, high blood pressure medications, or nasal congestion relievers.
- Other sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome.
- Other diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, chronic pain, diabetes or respiratory diseases.
- Psychological illnesses, including depression and anxiety.
- Living habits, such as taking small naps or lacking daily activities.
- Consume caffeine or alcoholic beverages before bed.
- Smoking, especially before bed.
- Being chronically stressed or stressed over a prolonged period of time.
5. Ways to treat long-term insomnia
- One of the first things your doctor may advise is to create as peaceful and welcoming an environment as possible in your bedroom. Ideally, your room should be dark, quiet, and the right temperature.
- You should only use your bed for sleeping. Avoid using your phone, working, playing games or watching TV in bed. Your doctor may also advise you to do the following to improve your sleep.
- Exercise and eat nutritious food.
- Avoid using tobacco and caffeine.
- Practice only lying in bed when you are tired. Staying in bed when you wake up can affect your sleep. If you lie in bed for 20 minutes and still don’t feel sleepy, you should do something else until you feel tired.
- Get up at a regular time and avoid napping during the day. Write a sleep diary. Record the times when you fall asleep and wake up, how long it takes you to fall asleep, and other important information. Based on what you record, your doctor may adjust your time in bed until your sleep improves. Once you spend 90% of your time in bed sleeping, you can start going to bed earlier.
If the above measures are not effective, your doctor may consider prescribing medication to help improve sleep.
Choosing appropriate sleeping pills for the elderly requires a lot of consideration and care. Some medications can cause physical dependence and risk of withdrawal. You should talk to a doctor before taking any long-term insomnia medication .
