Aging and Sleep – Symptoms

We all look forward to a good night’s sleep. Sleep allows our body to rest and to restore its energy levels. Without enough restful sleep, not only can we become grumpy and irritable, but also inattentive and more prone to accidents. Like food and water, adequate sleep is essential to good health and quality of life. There are two types of sleep: non-rapid eye movement — or NREM sleep — and rapid eye movement — or REM sleep. NREM sleep includes four stages, ranging from light to deep sleep. Then we go into REM sleep, the most active stage of sleep when dreaming often occurs. During REM sleep, the eyes move back and forth beneath the eyelids and muscles become immobile. We cycle through the NREM-REM stages of sleep approximately every 90 minutes. Researchers believe that two body systems — the sleep-wake process and our circadian biologic clock — regulate our sleep. They program our bodies to feel sleepy at night and awake during the day. The sleep-wake process works by balancing the amount of sleep a person needs based on the time spent awake. Our circadian biologic clock is a 24-hour body rhythm affected by sunlight. It regulates hormones such as melatonin, which is secreted during the night and promotes sleep, and other processes like body temperature. Sleeping at a time that is in sync with this rhythm is important for healthy sleep.

Key Points:

  • 1One of the main symptoms of all sleep problems is daytime sleepiness.
  • 2Sometimes sleepiness will manifest in other ways, such as loss of memory or concentration problems.
  • 3You may also feel irritable, depressed or a bit confused when you’re sleep deprived.


One of the main symptoms of all sleep problems is daytime sleepiness.

Read the full article at: https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/aging-and-sleep/symptoms

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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