Sleep and Aging: Disturbed Sleep-Part II
(6/16/19)- In a study by the National Institute on Aging of over 9,000 Americans age 65 and older, more than half said they had difficulty in falling or stating asleep.
There are several reasons for this including chronic medical problems, emotional distress, a need to urinate severl times a night or caregiving responsibilities.
Stress stimulates the release of substances like cortisol that are known to cause arousal and sleeplessness.
(5/12/19)- The Food and Drug Administration issued a safety warning that they would require manufacturers of sleeping pills, such as Ambien and related drugs to post strongly worded warnings in labels and patient guides for these types of medications.
The FDA singled out Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata, as well as 3 formulations of zolpidem, the generic version of Ambien. The boxed warning must list all possible side effects including risky behavior, sleep walking and sleep driving..
Users of sleep ills have grown to 20 million in 2010 from 5.3 million in 1999.
(3/19)- Melatonin one of the most popular dietary
supplements, is widely believed to help patients fall asleep faster and without
significant safety concerns. But does the available clinical evidence support
that?
Most research to date has been of low to
moderate quality, despite melatonin being commonly studied for the treatment of
insomnia. Analyses of clinical trials suggest that it decreases the time it
takes to fall asleep (sleep latency) by 5-9 minutes,[4,5,6]
and that patients with delayed sleep phase syndrome seem to fall asleep even
faster.[5] These results represent a statistically significant improvement
compared with placebo; thus, the clinical impact of melatonin's impact on sleep
latency may be more profound when considering both the placebo effect and
melatonin's observed improvement over placebo. This is also where patient
preferences and values should be taken into consideration. For some patients,
falling asleep a few minutes faster might greatly improve both quality of sleep and quality of life; for others, not so
much.
What risks are associated with melatonin? Most
studies show that melatonin's side-effect profile is comparable to placebo's. Additionally, melatonin does not appear to cause
hangover or withdrawal symptoms, which are often reported with prescription
drugs. A recent systematic review of adverse effects related to melatonin use
confirms that the supplement is generally benign. The most concerning adverse
effects include fatigue and impaired cognitive and motor function, but these
were primarily observed when patients took melatonin during daytime hours or
prior to cognitive or neuromotor tests.[7] Patients
who choose to use melatonin for sleep should be instructed to take it only
before bedtime to avoid these unwanted effects.
(9/5/17)- We received this item
from the Agency for Healthcare Research and quality <update@subscription.abrq.gov> about insomnia on August 3, 2017. Those who suffer from insomnia
as defined in the article may find the publication very useful.
New AHRQ Publications on Insomnia Disorder
Insomnia consumer guide
New publications from AHRQ can help clinicians and
patients effectively manage insomnia disorder, defined as a long-term condition
in which a person has trouble sleeping at least three nights each week for at
least three months. The clinical guide Management of Insomnia Disorder in
Adults: Current State of the Evidence found evidence that cognitive behavioral
therapy for insomnia can be effective and safe as a treatment. Some short-term
studies found that medications were also effective for treating insomnia, but
they have potential side effects. Also available is Managing Insomnia Disorder
– A Review of the Research for Adults, a companion guide for patients to
support treatment options discussions between clinicians, patients and
caregivers.
(12/2/16)- A new report, the results of which were published in a recent edition of the journal JAMA Psychiatry, concluded that chronic insomniacs can be helped by online therapy.
The study was led by researchers at the University of Virginia, where doctors recruited 303 people ages 21 to over 65 over the internet. Half of them were randomly assigned to receive education over the internet, including education and advice on insomnia.
The other half got a 6-week focused online therapy product called SHUTI. Some of the researchers and the university received payments from SHUTI This group received cognitive behavior therapy
(11/25/14)- Since sleep deprivation continues to be one of the most pressing problems of an aging population, we are repeating this article because it is even more pertinent today.
(2/23/02)-As a group, the elderly are most likely to report disturbed sleep and the use of some form of remedy to help them sleep. Question a family practitioner, who has about 300 registered patients 65 years or older, and you will find anywhere from 53-77 of these individuals suffering from insomnia. In a general population, according to the Epidemiological Catchment Area Study, the reported incidence of insomnia is 7.3%. Ascoli-Isreal reports that, if sampling techniques are correct, "8 million elderly people experience symptoms of insomnia, more than one million new cases of insomnia occur each year in those older than 65 and 1.3 million cases of insomnia resolve each year."
While a lot is known about sleep, it is still an essential biological process whose function remains unknown despite the slew of research being conducted. Certain things are knownabout sleep. It is ubiquitous i. e. found in all species of mammals, birds and reptiles. Sleep has been preserved throughout evolution. This is despite the fact that it is a potentially dangerous behavior. Animals cannot forage for food, take care of their young, procreate or avoid the dangers of predation during sleep. Sleep deprivation studies tell us that the maintenance of being awake becomes increasingly difficult after one day. The pressure to sleep becomes overwhelming after 48 hours of being awake. Studies have shown that rats when kept awake for 17 days die, and scientist are not sure why this happens.
In an attempt to define sleep in a universal manner, scientist have used the following behavioral criteria:
Sleep involves
- A prolonged period of quiescence.
- A reduced responsiveness to external stimuli.
- Rapid reversibility as opposed to hibernation, which is
not easily reversible.
- Homeostatic regulation; there is an increased need to
sleep following deprivation.
- Sleep appears to be independently regulated, not
completely tied to circadian rhythms, but has more complex regulations.
- In many regions of the brain, gene expression is higher
during waking time, than in sleep. (See Cirelli
& Tonino J Sleep Res 1999; 8 (Suppl.
1): 44-52.).
As individuals get older, the character of their sleep changes. The first thing seen is the changes in stage 4 or EEG slow wave activity. Other changes follow, including timing of sleep and wakefulness, reduced nocturnal sleep consolidation and a reduction in REM later in the aging process. Thus sleep, as we age, is generally lighter, shows less rapid eye movement sleep and more arousals occur. Other conditions also manifest themselves: sleep apnea and myoclonic jerks become more prevalent. With dementia, one sees an increase in wandering at night, disturbed sleep and day-night reversals. There may be some relation between these changes and the deterioration in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, which controls the circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are biological cycles of about 24 hours that include sleep/wake, body temperature and melatonin secretion cycles.
Sleep circadian rhythm and sleep homeostasis, two neurological processes, appear to play the key part in the regulation of sleep timing and sleep structure. Dijk and colleagues (Sleep 2001; 24:565-577) hypothesized that changes in these two processes contribute to the age-related changes in sleep timing and sleep consolidation. They state: "Sleep of older people is interrupted frequently by awakenings and this deterioration of sleep continuity is present at all circadian phases and appears to be related primarily to a reduction of the consolidation of non REM sleep. It remains to be established whether age-related reductions in slow wave and/or sleep spindle activity are associated with age-related attenuation of non REM sleep related inhibition of arousal from sleep."
Disturbances of sleep in nursing home residents appears to be a complex issue, involving both internal and external permutations i. e. aging, less than optimal environment, poor health, anxiety and depression, comorbidity, and decreased exposure to bright light. Ancoli-Israel and colleagues (J Am Geriatr Soc 2002; 50:282-289) suggest that bright light (>2000Lux) may be a synchronizer of circadian rhythms and directly influence secretion of melatonin, sleep/wake patterns and other circadian rhythms. They concluded their study with the following statement: "Increased exposure to morning bright light delayed the acrophase of the activity rhythm and made circadian rhythm more robust. These changes have the potential to be clinically beneficial because it may be easier to provide nursing care to patients whose circadian activity patterns are more socially acceptable."
The role of melatonin in sleep is ambiguous. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland during the hours of darkness. Its plasma level in the body varies with the time of day, reaching a peak between 01:00-05:00 h and becoming barely detectable by 09:00-10:00 h. While melatonin plasma levels are reported to be lower in older people, there is much variation among older people. Some older people have relatively high levels of melatonin, others have reduced levels and a few have no evidence of melatonin secretion. Baskett et al (Sleep; 2001; 24(4): 418-424) concluded: "Older people with age-related sleep maintenance problems do not have lower melatonin levels than older people reporting normal sleep." The effects of these different levels are still uncertain. This is also true for melatonin supplements. The research literature is full of conflicting results. Women may have more favorable results than men. Most improvements in sleep using melatonin are with controlled release melatonin and involve improvement in sleep quality/efficacy and sleep latency."
Insomnia involves problems of insufficient or non-restorative sleep despite an adequate opportunity to sleep. It can take the form of difficulty falling asleep or difficulty staying asleep. It can be transient insomnia defined as no more than a few nights of difficulty, short-term insomnia (less than about three weeks) or long-term (more than three weeks). The first two occur in individuals with no history of sleep abnormalities. Long-term or chronic insomnia appears to occur in one-third to two-thirds of individuals who have a recognizable psychiatric illness, with depression the leading symptom. It thus would appear that one-third of the elderly though in good health have chronic insomnia.
One of the favorite home remedies for insomnia is use of alcohol. It would appear that alcohol in low-to-moderate amounts initially promotes sleep, but in the long run it disrupts and fragments sleep. This may be the result of partial body tolerance of alcohol, withdrawal symptoms during the night or consequences of drinking i.e. gastric irritation, headache. Alcohol has been indicted as a potential culprit in increasing sleep-related breathing disorders by increasing muscle atonia in the upper airways, resulting in airway obstruction, hypoxemia and fragmented sleep.
The other remedy used is prescribed medications. While these may help in the short run, many older individuals become dependent upon them. The research literature indicates, in older persons, that these sedatives may lead to falling, driving accidents and impaired memory. This could be a case of the secondary effects proving worse than the problem of insomnia.
Morin and colleagues conducted a four-arm research experiment in which they compared a prescribed medication (Restoril) alone, Restoril plus cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions, cognitive-behavioral sessions alone and a placebo. The researchers concluded that cognitive-behavioral educational approaches are an effective long-term management technique for older persons with insomnia.
Please also see: Sleep-Part I
FOR AN INFORMATIVE AND PERSONAL ARTICLE ON PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS WHEN SELECTING A NURSING HOME SEE OUR ARTICLE "How to Select a Nursing Home"
·
Harold Rubin, MS, ABD, CRC, Guest Lecturer
updated June 16Exercise
and the Elderly- -
)
by Harold Rubin
updated June 15, 2019
, 2019
http://www.therubins.com
To e-mail: hrubin12@nyc.rr.com or allanrubin4@gmail.com