Daytime sleepiness in the healthy "old old": a comparison with young adults.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if excessive daytime sleepiness is an inevitable consequence of aging.


METHODS
Daytime sleepiness was measured using Multiple Sleep Latency Tests (MSLT's) before and after a night of total sleep deprivation in a sample of 22 healthy men and women in their eighties and 29 men and women in their twenties.


RESULTS
Young adults were somewhat sleepier than elders, as measured by rapidity of sleep onset during daytime nap recordings using the MSLT, and showed a higher incidence of REM sleep during naps. However, recovery from the effects of acute sleep loss was slower in the elderly, judging from the presence of more daytime sleepiness 2 days after a night of total sleep deprivation. Such persistent sleepiness was absent in the young adult control group.


CONCLUSIONS
Healthy persons in late old age may have a level of daytime sleepiness no greater than, and perhaps even less than, that seen in healthy young adults.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania.
C F
CF
Reynolds
J R
JR
Jennings
C C
CC
Hoch
T H
TH
Monk
S R
SR
Berman
F T
FT
Hall
J V
JV
Matzzie
D J
DJ
Buysse
D J
DJ
Kupfer
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D003700:Delta Rhythm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology