you may find that you get fewer hours of shut-eye, or you fall asleep during the day. what you consider a good amount can be entirely different than what your neighbor needs. stick to a regular bedtime. your body will get used to the routine. when you get out of the tub, the drop in body temperature may help you feel tired. take time to calm down before you turn out the lights. you can read a book, listen to music — whatever helps you unwind. if you’re still awake 20 minutes after you hit the sack, get up. train yourself to think of the bed as a place for sleeping only. even small amounts can make it harder to stay asleep. it can make you wake up in the middle of the night when the effects of the booze have worn off.
make an effort to get outside in the sunlight each day. if you still can’t sleep, your doctor may be able to help. they can see if you might have a condition that’s causing you to stay awake. they can refer you to a sleep specialist, too. you may have a medical condition that’s affecting your rest. treatment to help your condition may help you get some shut-eye. make sure your doctor knows about all the medications you take. they may suggest you adjust when to take it or how much you take. the older you get, the more likely you are to have some major transitions in your life. things like illness, financial problems, or the death of a loved one cause stress, and that can make it hard to sleep. you might have a lot more downtime and be less active during the day. so try to keep your body and mind moving: you could volunteer, hit the gym, learn a new skill, spend time with friends and family — the point is, stay active.
some of the most dramatic changes, she says, actually occur in our 20s, but as we reach older adulthood some themes tend to arise. many 50+ sleepers find it’s easier to become awakened during the night, which is reflected in a little shorter sleep duration over all, dautovich says. after we grow out of this phase, though, our circadian rhythms keep advancing, and later in life we tend to become sleepy earlier and feel our most alert earlier in the morning, too. that lighter sleep is a heck of a lot easier to disturb, meaning you become a lot easier to wake up in the middle of the night. of course, it’s only natural to figure you can make up for that with an afternoon nap.
“unfortunately, that can disrupt our natural rhythms and result in poorer sleep the following night,” dautovich says. but hitting the head may also be related to that lighter sleep we get, she says. fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone can make healthy sleep harder to come by, and insufferable hot flashes can wake some women up or make it impossible to drift off. aside from following all the general sleep hygiene rules, dautovich suggests making your sleep environment more “flexible” if you can: sleep in breathable fabrics and layer sheets and blankets on the bed so you can easily fling ’em to the side mid-flash. “if you sleep next to a snoring bed partner, you lose approximately 1 hour of sleep a night,” he says. the overpowering urge to move, usually the legs, can also grow more severe with age.
1. sleep problems due to an underlying medical problem. although older adults do often suffer from what’s called “primary” sleep disorders, many sleep problems what can cause sleep problems when you’re older? medications. some can keep you awake at night. change. the older you get, the more likely you to be classified as deep, restful, restorative sleep, brain waves have to reach a certain height, and after age 50 or so, the spikes simply don’, .
insomnia is one of the more common sleep problems in older people. other sleep disorders, such as restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, or sleep and aging. the quality of our sleep often deteriorates as we age. people tend to sleep less and are prone to more waking episodes after while sleep issues may increase as your loved one ages or experiences changes in health, you may also be at a higher risk of sleep problems due to stress or odd, .
When you try to get related information on sleep problems over 50, you may look for related areas. .