The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Elderly Concerning Physiological and Emotional Stability Brock Rodgers Loma Linda University School of Nursing Introduction Sleep is a vital component to sustaining life in humans. Even though everyone participates in sleeping, many individuals do not understand the true significance of sleeping, and what benefits and consequences come with too much or too little sleep. Sleep comes in different stages throughout the period of rest, with some stages being more important than others. By interrupting various stages, different types of problems can arise from which stage is being affected. In particular, elder adults are affected in larger numbers to a more extensive depth of issues. “However, aging does not mean elders should encounter sleep disorders; it merely increases the possibility that more elders will seek help to manage the problem” (Song, Hollenbeck, Blair, Schatzkin, Chen. 2012. p.316) By understanding possible causes for sleep disorders, what kinds of physiological effects this has on the aged anatomy, and the types of problems that appear in the psychological aspect, it becomes achievable to begin working towards reversing complications and promoting elder sleep health. Identification of the Problem The human body has a plethora of rhythms that regulate activity such as behavioral processes, physiological functions, moods, and performance. Sleep is a major action that falls into this category of
“Why do we sleep?” is a very popular questions that many humans ask today. Sleep is very sufficient to the human body. If it was not important, then God would not have designed for a third of our life to be occupied by sleep. During this time period, many people are interested to know what is a good amount of sleep and what are the harmful effects to not getting enough sleep.
Sleep is important not only for promoting healing, but also for the overall well-being of the individual. When there are problems with the sleeping pattern, it impacts the overall health and safety of the older adult. The person will not have enough rest and will be too tired to perform activities surrounding daily living. We have to assess the risk factors contributing to the problems of sleep disturbance and these might be “related to poor sleep hygiene, including an irregular sleep schedule, environmental noise or light, and the use of stimulants” (Mauk, 2014, p. 581). If the sleeping pattern is not assessed, possible complications will happen, such as falls that could lead to bodily injuries.
Sleep disturbance among the older adult population is known to be a prevalent issue (Gooneratne, Pack, Staley, Schutte-Rodin, Dinges, & Pack, 2011). Much study has
Morgan Manella in the article “Study: A Third of U.S. Adults Don’t Get Enough Sleep” argues that sleep deprivation can have a negative effect in someone’s health. Manella supports her argument by presenting statistics that shows how adults that don’t enough sleep have chronic conditions. The author’s purpose is to raise awareness so that people will sleep more often and have a better health condition.
Sleep is a beneficial necessity both from a scientific and psychological standpoint as sleep improves mental and physical health. Sleep plays an essential role in our growth and development as human beings. During sleep, our brains are growing and preparing for the day ahead so that we may be productive and attentive in every daily task (“Sleep”). Sleep is used by some as a way to escape the harsh reality of life, healing genuine sadness and terminating evocative pain. Without the recommended minimum of eight hours of sleep each night, people can get agitated, distracted easily, acquire health problems, make bad decisions, and feel sad and depressed (Borbely).
Universal to every human from birth to death, sleep is a necessary function to survival, productivity, and happiness. While most fall asleep at night with ease, it is estimated that 50-70 million Americans battle sleep or wakefulness disorders. Although sleep disorders do not immediately present with a threat comparable to other common disorders such as depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia, sleep disorders prove very disruptive to one’s quality of life. Insufficient sleep may result in difficulty concentrating, difficulty with memory, trouble with personal care such as hygiene, driving, or managing finances, and poor performance in the workplace. While there is a wide array of sleep related illnesses that may plague any given individual,
I have always been enchanted by the idea of sleep. As a child, I laid in bed attempting to understand why I was unable to fall asleep. I knew I wasn’t the only one, but the snoring of my family convinced me otherwise. Biology taught me to understand genetics and environmental cues, but they were unable to explain to me how my sleep pattern was different. Unable to figure the cause of my sleep problems, I delved into self-treatments instead. Curiosity for knowledge in sleep therapy prompted my interest in understanding sleep consequences and health.
Sleep is a very important aspect of daily life. Many people have jobs, school, and family obligations to incorporate into their day. Sometimes sleep gets pushed on the back burner to make room for other activities. Sleep deprivation is a condition describing when a person doesn’t get enough sleep. Although the amount of sleep that people need varies, most people (adults) generally need as much as eight hours of sleep each night to feel well rested and alert throughout the day and evening(Drowsy Driving: Asleep at the Wheel, 2015).
Sleep effects every living organism on the world, whether it is positive or negative it has an impact on everyone. There are many different stages of sleep and each containing its own purpose. Sleep isn’t as simple and unnecessary as many believe it to be; sleep has the power to cause many different disorders and can even cause death if a person is deprived from sleep for too long. Sleep can also effect the brain and how the brain functions on a daily basis. Sleep is an important factor of life that should not be over looked. If enough sleep occurs there are many advantages that can make one’s life more healthy and beneficial.
The Psychology and Health journal focuses on the approaches to health and illness and contains topics such as physical illness, treatment processes and recovery; psychosocial factors, health attitudes and behavior, the individual health care system interface. The journal publishes original research, accepts meta-analyses work and presents psychological methods and efforts in health-related fields. The objective of the study Subjective age and sleep in middle-aged and older adults was to assess chronological age and how it is used to explain changes in sleep.
Sleep is one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the
Sleep is undoubtedly one of the most essential requirements for the human body to function properly. It plays a very important role in ensuring the wellness of the human body both physically as well as mentally. In fact, the importance of sleep is clear from the fact that it helps you in maintaining a good lifestyle throughout our entire lifetime. Not only does it help maintain our physical and mental health; rather it also helps in maintaining a decent and healthy lifestyle along with ensuring safety from a number of fatal diseases. It is usually said that the mood in which you wake up is largely dependent on the type of sleep you have been in. This in itself is a big proof of the importance of sleep in our lives. While sleeping, our body finally gets its share of rest and it also gets ample time in rejuvenating from all the wear and tear that it went through during the entire day. Not only this, the body is in its own working condition when we are sleeping as this is the time when it supports the healthy functioning of the brain as well as physical attributes of our body.
You often hear of the elderly complaining about their sleep quality. Why do older people sleep worse than younger? Generally, a person’s health determines their quality of sleep. Older people who have health problems experience a harder time falling asleep compared to healthy elders. Health issues like back problems, for example, will cause a person’s back to hurt and when they sleep they will be quite uncomfortable. To find out how aging affects sleep, Dr. Vitilleo, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, and other investigators started a study. This study included a large group with about half of the participants over 65 years old. They observed that sleep older people compared to young adults was
The design of the study was a correlation base study among different age groups, explored effect, and efficiency, latency, and assessed sleep duration. The researcher viewed and measured the participant's PSQI and MRI scans by an average of 3.5 years. The outcome of the research showed that poor sleep quality was associated with an increase of atrophy in frontal, parietal, and temporal regions, and reduced volume in the right upper frontal region. Correlations for the age of 60 and above, could not be explained by any of the variation in BMI, blood pressure, physical activity, and were linked to decrease in sleep efficiency. With the graphs and tables of the research, from the data, we can conclude that the measure of the atrophy was widely correlated with sleep quality. The conclusion for this article was largely driven by correlations from elderly age adults, could not be explained by characteristics that are being
Many disorders and diseases can result from abnormal sleeping patterns that are triggered from sleep deprivation. The most common forms of sleep disorders include insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy (NINDS 10). All of these sleep disorders begin from sleep deprivation and can be managed once they are diagnosed correctly. According to Urban, “Nervousness, dizziness, and sleeplessness may occur”, as a result of sleep deprivation (1). This proves that the slightest health changes can occur if sleep deprivation becomes a problem. According to NINDS, “The disorders and the resulting sleep deprivation interfere with work, driving, and social activities” (10). This shows that the effects of being sleep deprived can drastically change one’s everyday