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Deep Sleep may act as Fountain of Youth in Old Age

posted by on Monday April 10 2017, @12:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the for-the-aged-among-us dept.

"exec" writes:

Restorative, sedative-free slumber can ward off mental and physical ailments.

http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/04/05/deep-sleep-aging/

As we grow old, our nights are frequently plagued by bouts of wakefulness, bathroom trips and other nuisances as we lose our ability to generate the deep, restorative slumber we enjoyed in youth.

But does that mean older people just need less sleep?

Not according to UC Berkeley researchers, who argue in an article published April 5 in the journal Neuron that the unmet sleep needs of the elderly elevate their risk of memory loss and a wide range of mental and physical disorders.

"Nearly every disease killing us in later life has a causal link to lack of sleep," said the article's senior author, Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience. "We've done a good job of extending life span, but a poor job of extending our health span. We now see sleep, and improving sleep, as a new pathway for helping remedy that."

-- submitted from IRC

Bryce A. Mander, Joseph R. Winer, Matthew P. Walker. Sleep and Human Aging. Neuron DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.02.004

[Ed note. (martyb)] I've certainly noticed that I do not sleep as soundly as I used to — I rarely sleep through an entire night. On the other hand, there is a body of evidence for divided/segmented sleep. How has your sleeping fared as you have gotten older?

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  • (Score: 2) by fubari on Monday April 10 2017, @07:13PM

    by fubari (4551) on Monday April 10 2017, @07:13PM (#491849)

    Rough sleep? Check out the Healthy Sleep Formula [grc.com] by Steve Gibson (he does the Security Now [wikipedia.org] podcast, also highly recommended).
    They aren't selling anything (true), just a useful public service I want to pass along. And if your sleep is fine, to what your family and friends say... this may help them.
    excerpt (emphasis added):

    Who should this HSF help?
    Having “no insomnia” generally means that long periods of wakefulness rarely occur. Non-insomniacs fall asleep quickly and remain asleep (or quickly return to sleep) throughout the night to obtain a healthy total duration of sleep. “Insomnia” disturbs this ideal by thwarting the person's ability to initiate and/or to maintain sleep.

    Together, this Formula's specific niacinamide and melatonin are effective in helping to maintain sleep. But their effects are deliberately delayed. The addition of oleamide enhances the sleep maintenance provided by the first two ingredients but also offers relief for those who experience difficulty initiating sleep at the start of the night. This formula is effective for resolving both forms of insomnia. It will help initiate sleep (within 10 to 20 minutes) as well as either keep its user asleep all night, or allow them to quickly return to sleep after a waking interruption.

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