In his research, Dr Drummond has compared the sleep patterns of 33 adults with an average age of 68 with 29 younger people with an average age of 27. They had their brains scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging, while they memorised a list of nouns.
Older people who got less than six hours were the ones whose brains could not turn on the areas needed to memorise things, he said. Older brains look sleep deprived and the question is, are they really sleep-deprived. Our data suggests that yes, sleep does impact performance and brain function.
The absolute number of hours spent asleep matters more for older people, while for younger people sleep quality is more important, Dr Drummond said. If you were to fall asleep, never wake up until the alarm goes off and then jump out of bed, you have 100 per cent sleep efficiency. In older adults that happens less and less frequently. The most common characteristic of sleep as we age is that you wake up in the middle of the night.
Theres data to suggest that what breaks down as we age is not the need to sleep but the ability to sleep in a solid chunk. As we age the strength of our circadian rhythms breaks down. Its harder to be awake during the day and to be asleep at night.
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