ANCSLEEP BLOG

What Happens to Sleep As We Age?

As an adult, you should be averaging between 7-9 hours of sleep every day. This is extensively researched and claims of success with less than 7 hours of sleep should be taken with a grain of salt.

Although 7-9 hours a day is recommended, these hours don't necessarily have to happen at night or all at once. People who sleep 4-5 hours at night will need to supplement their sleep with naps in order to get their necessary hours of sleep. When you are younger, you likely had little to no trouble getting at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. But your sleep pattern changes as you age, and after 65 years of age, getting 7 straight hours of sleep may seem impossible.

Generally speaking, as one gets older, their sleep pattern changes in the following ways:

• They will likely sleep less than 7 hours at night
• Their sleep may feel less restful during the night
• They may be more inclined to nap
• The times that they go to bed and wake up will also likely change

While sleep patterns might change, the need to get a certain amount of sleep won’t change. These changes happen for life reasons (stress, children, jobs), hormonal changes, and natural physiological changes that makes one more susceptible to certain sleep disorders.

What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition and sleeping disorder where you repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, anywhere from 5 to 30+ times per hour. Each time you stop breathing you rouse yourself to begin breathing again, though in the morning you will not remember rousing.

Your throat becomes blocked because your breathing muscles in the back of your throat relax, causing the back of your throat to collapse fully or partially, blocking your airways. Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event.Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risks

Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a serious medical condition with ride ranging emotional, physical, and cognitive side effects and risks. OSA can increase the risk of:

• Shorter life expectancy
• Lower quality of life
• Lower performance in many areas of life
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Stroke
• Heart disease

Fortunately, OSA treatment options can significantly or completely reduce these risks.

Sleep – More Than Just Mental

Sleep deprivation may appear to affect you most mentally and emotionally with the fogginess and moodiness. If sleep deprivation only affected us mentally, it might be easier to get away with. Unfortunately, chronic sleep deprivation can be a silent killer as it takes a large toll on your physical health and performance, as well as mental and emotional health. 

Sleep impacts many areas of your physical health:

• Immune system
• Brain
• Pain
• Safety
• Weight

Let’s look at how sleep affects these areas of your physical health.

Sleep Can Cause…Yes, Erectile Dysfunction (ED)

Sleep deprivation can cause erectile dysfunction (ED). This often comes as a shock to most men and, in cases where men deal with ED, it can be a sign of hope because it can be easily fixed if sleep is causing the ED. Sleep deprivation can affect your sex life in several ways:

• Reduced sex drive (libido)
• Inability to get an erection
• Inability to perform (maintain an erection)

Sleep deprivation is a result of getting less than your optimal sleep, which for adults, is 7-9 hours per day. A couple nights of sleep deprivation is not likely to cause ED, though you may feel decreased libido in that time period. Usually, chronic sleep deprivation triggers ED and reduced libido as opposed to short-term.

Getting Older Often Means More Sleep Problems

As you get older, the likelihood that you will develop or report sleeping issues will increase with age. This is because sleep patterns will change over time, requiring you to adapt in order to acquire adequate sleep. Examples of these changes include:

• You will likely sleep less than 7 hours at night
• Your sleep may feel less restful during the night
• You may be more inclined to nap
• The times that you go to bed and wake up will also likely change

As an adult, you should average 7-9 hours of sleep every day. However, these hours do not have to be continuous.

Younger individuals often have less challenges with sleeping throughout the night uninterrupted. But as sleep patterns change with age, getting the same amount of uninterrupted sleep may seem impossible.

Regardless, it's still vital for the body to obtain 7-9 hours of sleep. To obtain this, even with shorter sleeping periods at night, older adults often have to supplement their nightly sleep with long, daily naps, or separate their sleep into two long sessions with a break of wakefulness. The method in which one acquires this sleep is irrelevant, but what is important, is that getting the requisite amount of sleep is a conscious effort that requires intention and planning. 

The causes of the changes are multifactorial - stress, family, job changes, hormones, nature - and can make one more susceptible to certain sleep disorders. Let’s look at some of the sleep disorders that are more common in older people.

The common conception about athletic performance is that it’s a result of physical performance. While this is partly true, maintaining high quality athletic performance is a combination of physical and cognitive performance/health. Athletics requires high levels of both physical and mental energy through movement and a very high degree of focus/concentration.

Sleep is one of the most, if not the most, critical component in maintaining cognitive and physical performance for athletes. There is a plethora of information about:

• The relationship between physical performance and sleep
• The relationship between cognitive performance sleep
• How much sleep can improve athletic performance

Let’s look at each area in more detail.

How Sleep Deprivation Affects Sex

Sleep deprivation can greatly affect a male’s sexual drive. Specifically, it can quickly result in Erectile Dysfunction (ED). The fact that sleep deprivation can cause ED is usually quite shocking, and may be good news for men who are suffering with ED but don’t know why.

Sleep deprivation can cause ED in all of the following ways:

• Reduce your sex drive (reduced libido)
• Make you unable to get an erection
• Make you unable to maintain an erection

Sleep deprivation results from getting less than optimal sleep amounts, which for adults, is 7-9 hours per day. A couple nights of sleep deprivation is not likely to cause ED, though you may feel decreased libido in that time period.

However, chronic sleep deprivation, such as sleep deprivation caused by sleep disorders, is more likely to result in erectile dysfunction.

What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition and sleeping disorder characterized by repeated cessations of breathing throughout the night, anywhere from 5-30 times an hour. During each pause, the body wakes up to begin breathing again, however, the sleeper will not remember these events. These pauses occur because the throat becomes blocked by collapsed muscles in the back of the neck during exhalation. Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event.

What are the Two Types of Insomnia?

Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that consists of individuals struggling to achieve their nightly 8 hours. There are two types of insomnia, and two modes of insomnia. 

The two types of insomnia are:

• Primary insomnia – insomnia with no clear, underlying issue 
• Secondary insomnia – insomnia as a direct result of something else

The two modes of insomnia are:

• Acute insomnia – short term (1 month or less)
• Chronic insomnia – long term (greater than 1 month)

This means that there are four possible types of insomnia.

• Secondary/acute insomnia – temporary insomnia in response to a temporary illness, stress, etc.
  • “Ever since my surgery two weeks ago I can’t get more than a couple hours of sleep per night”
• Primary/acute insomnia – temporary insomnia with no underlying cause
  • “I just can’t seem to sleep at all this month”
• Secondary/chronic insomnia – long-term insomnia in response that is long-term and may be secondary to chronic conditions such as pain, long term illness, etc.
  • “Ever since my back injury last year I wake up constantly throughout the night in pain”
• Primary/chronic insomnia – long-term insomnia with no discernable cause
  • “I haven’t slept more than a few hours at a time all year and I don’t know why”

Living with chronic sleep deprivation will make it harder to live a quality life. When someone is exhausted, it is very difficult to function well. Many conditions cause chronic sleep deprivation, such as:

• Sleep apnea
• Insomnia
• Parasomnias
• Restless leg syndrome
• Circadian rhythm disorders

Chronic sleep deprivation is defined by most studies as getting six or less hours of sleep on a regular basis. Let’s look at the critical ways chronic sleep deprivation impacts the quality of your life and, in turn, how getting good sleep can positively impact your life.