Sleeping While Aging
So after reading my last post you probably assumed that I returned to my home, 400 miles away from my granddaughter’s nursery, and immediately began getting a good night’s sleep.
Wrong. Like more than a third of American adults, I frequently have trouble sleeping, wake up several times during the night, and have difficulty falling back asleep. Even without my granddaughter’s help. After returning home, it took several weeks to settle into a good sleep routine, and I still found that two or three nights a week I was wakeful, resulting in low energy and mild depression the following day.
More than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Report, which in 2014 collected self-reported sleep durations for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommend that adults aged 18–60 years sleep at least 7 hours each night to promote optimal health and well-being. They also warn that sleeping less than seven hours per day is associated with an increased risk of developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and frequent mental distress.
The Daily Mail
According to Eric J. Olson, M.D, of the Mayo Clinic, adults over 65 need about the same amount of sleep as younger adults, but as we age, our sleeping patterns change.
Normal Changes in Sleep Patterns
My contemporaries agreed with those findings when we talked about it over coffee after one of our thrice-weekly exercise classes. Everyone had stories about having trouble getting to sleep, waking up several times a night with painful joints, restless legs, or the need to urinate, then being sleepy during the daytime as a result. We recognize that many of these changes are normal results of aging, but we also wonder what we can do to improve the quality of our sleep.
Researchers have identified several external factors that can make falling asleep more difficult. One is stress or worry; another is medication that may have been prescribed for other conditions, or sleeping pills that exacerbate the problem rather than solve it.
It’s also not unusual, although probably unwise, for older adults to take lengthy naps during the day. Day sleeping reduces the pressure to sleep at night, and may result in staying awake later, sleeping poorly, and then being sleepy again during the day. I never seem to have the time to nap, so that isn’t my problem, but I’m sure I have done other things that interfered with my sleep. My friends agreed that it’s tempting to take naps in the daytime, but that it makes it just that much harder to fall asleep at night.
I like to read in bed. Some books help me sleep, but others, especially mysteries, follow me into sleep as I spend a portion of my brain trying to solve the puzzle created by the author. I nearly always wake up at least once during the night to empty my bladder, and sometimes I lie awake for hours afterward, the characters in the book drifting around my room in the dark like ghosts. Watching TV just before going to bed can also interfere with sleep, which is why some sleep experts discourage people from installing a TV in their bedroom.
Something else I like to do in the evening is have a glass of wine. Unfortunately, lots of studies report that drinking alcohol shortly before bedtime may help to induce sleep, but also contributes to waking up in the middle of the night. Caffeinated drinks are similarly implicated in night wakefulness. If you must drink alcohol or coffee with dinner, eat early, and limit yourself to one glass or one cup.
In preparing this essay, I read many commentaries on the internet related to getting a good night sleep. One, on the AARP Website, listed twelve things to do before bedtime. Another referred to “sleep hygiene” and prescribed soft music, an air pillow, and a very expensive mattress. Some people encourage an evening yoga routine; other suggest a mellow walk around the block after dinner.
1. Set Up a Sleeping and Eating Schedule
I also read several scholarly articles that reported the results of many research studies, and it seems to me that what worked for my infant granddaughter might also work for us. What I learned from that Wake, Feed, Nap schedule was that waking up and going to sleep needed to be fixed points. In other words, falling sleep and waking up at the same time every day, and eating your meals on a predictable schedule, helps your body to develop a rhythm, a relationship with digestion and sleep if you will. My iPhone helps me with this one; the Bedtime feature provides me with an alarm at each end. When I first retired from work, I set the evening alarm but not a morning alarm, just let myself awaken when I was ready. Eventually I settled on nine hours of sleep as a goal, a bit higher than average, but apparently necessary to recover from the inflammation caused by my rheumatoid arthritis. My alarm chimes every morning at 7:00 a.m., but most days I am already starting to awaken before hearing it.
2. Exercise Your Brain and Your Body
For babies to sleep well at night, they need to be active during the day. 
Not too surprisingly, that works for grownups, too. One of the things that changes for many older people after they retire is that they sit more, reading, knitting, watching TV, doing puzzles, participating in a variety of sedentary tasks. Their brains also may not be as actively engaged as they once were, and research tells us that well-exercised brains crave sleep. Of course, the opposite may also be true — some people who left sedentary jobs behind them took up cycling, running, walking, hiking, volunteering in the community, learning a language or how to cook dim sum. When I talk to people whose lives are more physically active and more mentally stimulating than they once were, I always ask how they sleep. “Like a baby,” is often the answer. (I refrain from pointing out that most babies don’t sleep well, but you get the point.)
Find a senior exercise class or set up a daily walking date with a friend. Some people prefer yoga or tai chi, chi gung or meditation. The goal is to exercise your muscles and stimulate your brain. Do whatever works, but do it at least 30 minutes a day.
3. Eat Your Veggies
Food is important, too. We all know that eating rich food just before bedtime can result in indigestion and interrupted sleep. But there is also evidence that the quality and content of your overall diet can influence the chemical interactions that induce the healing sleep known as REM. In this as in so many other areas of health and wellness, the recommendation is the Mediterranean Diet, rich in vegetables and fruit, complex carbohydrates and a variety of protein-rich foods including fatty fish, chicken, soy, beans and nuts. However, there is also some indication that leaning on carbs in your evening meal and eating at least two hours before bedtime can help you fall asleep more easily.
4. Set the Stage for Sleep
As a child development professional, I have always advocated a before-sleep ritual for young children. One such ritual begins with a leisurely bath followed by putting on pajamas, a bedtime story, a song or two, quiet music, and lights out. In most situations, it works like magic. Sleeping baby.
I realized that if I wanted to improve my quality of sleep, I had to create a similar going-to-sleep ritual. I also needed to create a nursery environment for my sleeping hours, just like my son and his wife had done for my granddaughter. I began by removing all computers and tablets from the room, and turning the master switch off any remaining electronics, such as the tuner and amplifier. The one exception I made was my iPhone, but I place it inside the drawer of my bedside table when I retire. When it’s time to sleep, I lock the doors, turn off the lights, and go into my back garden to soak in the hot tub for 15 minutes. This is so much a part of my ritual now that when I begin undressing, my companion Border Collie emerges from under my bed where she lives and starts barking happily at the back door. I’m usually yawning before I’m dry. I get out the clothes I will wear the next day, remove the decorative pillows from my bed, climb in, and relax. If I read, I limit myself to 15 minutes. Once I turn out the light, I lie on my back and breathe slowly for a few minutes using a yoga breathing technique that helps to reduce anxiety. If I’m still awake, I’ll turn on my side and arrange my pillows to take the pressure off my arthritic joints, and that’s usually all it takes.
Lots of factors contribute to poor sleep, and some of them, such as pain or worry or breathing problems, cannot be fixed in the middle of the night. But if you spend some time thinking about your lifestyle and incorporate some of these four guidelines into it, I believe you will see improvement. It worked for me. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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