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Here are seven culprits behind sudden excessive sleepiness in older adults, plus what you can do to bring your energy levels back to baseline.
Some lifestyle habits can make you feel tired, such as: Staying up too late. A good night’s sleep is important to feeling refreshed and energetic. Try going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. Having too much caffeine. Drinking caffeinated soda, tea, or coffee, or even eating chocolate, can keep you from getting a good night’s sleep.
Excessive sleepiness in older adults is often multifactorial and may signal an underlying sleep disorder, chronic medical condition, undiagnosed mood disorder, or side effects of medications. It is associated with increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly.
Daytime sleepiness in the elderly becomes problematic when a loved one spends most of their time dozing in bed or in their favorite chair instead of engaging in life. If you want an older adult to stay awake more during the day and sleep better at night, you'll need to discover the underlying reason (s) for their excessive napping.
Compared with younger adults, the elderly spend more time in bed but have deterioration in both the quality and quantity of sleep. All of these changes can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness, which in turn can lead to intentional and unintentional napping.
Excessive daytime sleepiness can result from insufficient sleep, primary sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or central disorders of hypersomnolence, or can be secondary to medication use, underlying medical or psychiatric illnesses.
Around 20% of older people experience excessive daytime sleepiness, which may be a sign of an underlying health condition. Excessive daytime sleepiness in older adults may be a symptom of health issues like sleep apnea, cognitive impairment, or cardiovascular issues. Sleep Apnea: Obstructive sleep apnea can cause pauses in breathing during ...
Even if there are degradations of sleep after 60 years, daytime wake level and especially daytime sleepiness is not modified with age. On the other hand, under sleep deprivation condition, older adults show smaller cognitive impairments than younger adults, suggesting an age-related lower vulnerability to extended wakefulness.
In the current issue of SLEEP, Jaussent and colleagues 1 have enhanced our understanding of cognitive decline by providing further evidence to support the role of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) as an independent risk factor. EDS is frequently viewed as a common aspect of aging.
Excessive daytime sleepiness is a pathologic condition in the elderly. Excessive daytime sleepiness is associated with sleep and mood disorders, soporific medications, various medical conditions, and cognitive decline. Older adults tend to underreport excessive daytime sleepiness.