Older Americans often have difficulty
getting a good night's rest. It's a huge quality-of-life problem, experts say,
because contrary to popular belief, seniors require about the same amount of
sleep as younger adults. "Sleep problems and sleep disorders
are not an inherent (固有的) part of aging," said Dr. Harrison G. Bloom, an
associate clinical professor of geriatrics (老年病学) and medicine at the Mount
Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "It's pretty much of a myth that
older people need less sleep than younger people." Yet, in a
study published recently in The American Journal of Medicine,
researchers found that more than half of older Americans have problems getting
the sleep they need. Older people tend to have "sleep
fragmentation", meaning they wake up more often during the night, said study
author Dr. Julie Gammck, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of
Geriatric Medicine at St. Louis University. They also seem to
get less "REM" sleep, the type of sleep during which rapid eye movement occurs,
Bloom added. It's unclear what role these naturally occurring
changes in sleep patterns have on person's quality of life, Bloom said. "What is
important, though, is that older people often have actual sleep disorders and
problems with sleep," he said. And, experts say, there is
usually more than one cause. "Sleep trouble in older adults is
typically associated with acute and chronic illnesses, including specific sleep
disorders like sleep apnea (呼吸暂停) and restless leg syndrome that appear with
greater frequency in older populations," said Michael V. Vitiello, a professor
of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and associate director of the University
of Washington's Northwest Geriatric Education Center. Taking
multiple medications, as many older people do, can also lead to fatigue a
"hypersomnia", or being tired all the time, Bloom added.
Another big problem, he noted, is depression and anxiety. "Those are very
commonly associated with sleep problems." Despite the
prevalence (流行) of sleep difficulties in older adults, many patients Aren't
getting the help they need. As a result, problems like insomnia (失眠), restless
leg syndrome and sleep apnea are underdiagnosed and undertreated, Bloom
said.
单选题
Sleep problems can seriously affect one's quality of life.