Poor Sleep Quality Causes Insomnia in Old Age: Study

Insomnia in old age is because of poor sleep quality, finds a study.

Sleeplessness or insomnia is a serious medical condition that has a massive impact on one's physiological and mental balance.  Getting very little sleep is linked to accidents, poor academic performance and work life, anxiety, stress, depression and other mental ailments. Experts from the University of Chicago  discovered that insomnia during old age is not related to the duration of the sleep but, is mostly influenced by the overall quality of rest.

The researchers observed over 700 participants enrolled in 'Activity and Sleep study' who were asked to wear an actigraph on their wrists for 72 hour to note their daily sleep routine. In addition, the subjects were surveyed about how well they rested and if they experienced interrupted sleep.

The actigraph showed that most of the older adults in the experiment had enough sleep of about 7.9 hours and13 percent of them did not feel well rested. In addition, the experts also saw that some of the participants who woke up repeatedly at night reportedly were satisfied with their sleep even though they slept for less duration, reports the Health Site.

"This suggests that a question about feeling rested may tap into other aspects of older adults' everyday health or psychological experience. Our findings suggest that reports of what seem like specific sleep problems from survey questions may be more accurately viewed as indicators of general problems or dissatisfaction with sleep that may be due to other issues in their lives affecting their overall well-being,' said Linda Waite, study author and researcher at the University of Chicago, reports the Psych Central.

More information is available online in the journal Gerontology; Medical Sciences.