Healthy older adults better tolerate sleep deprivation than young adults.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether healthy aging is associated with increased sleepiness and whether healthy older adults experience more sleepiness when acutely sleep deprived.


METHODS
A 5-day inpatient circadian rhythm-sleep study consisting of 3 baseline nights followed by an extended 26-hour wake episode under constant conditions.


METHODS
Intensive Physiological Monitoring Unit, General Clinical Research Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital.


METHODS
Thirty-seven healthy participants without medical, psychological, or sleep disorders: 26 young (7 women, 19 men; mean age 21.9 +/- 3.3, range 18-29) and 11 "young-old" adults (3 women, 8 men; mean age 68.1 +/- 3.6, range 65-76).


METHODS
An extended 26-hour wake episode under constant conditions.


METHODS
Electroencephalographic-verified wakefulness, slow eye movements, sustained attention, subjective sleepiness.


RESULTS
During the first 16 hours corresponding to the usual waking day, both groups rated themselves as alert and had similar levels of vigilance and little evidence of sleepiness. As the wake episode continued, the older subjects were less impaired, showing faster reaction times, fewer performance lapses and attentional failures, and less frequent unintentional sleep episodes than the younger subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
This small study suggests that excessive sleepiness is not normal in healthy older adults. Symptoms of excessive sleepiness in this population, including reliance on caffeine to maintain alertness, should be evaluated and treated. Further study is needed to determine whether daytime sleepiness in middle-old (75-84 years) and old-old (> or = 85) adults is normal or is instead associated with sleep restriction, undiagnosed sleep disorders, medication side effects, mood disorders, or other medical disorders that disrupt sleep.
Duffy
Jeanne F
JF
Brigham and Women's Hospital General Clinical Research Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. jduffy@hms.harvard.edu
Willson
Hannah J
HJ
Wang
Wei
W
Czeisler
Charles A
CA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000503:physiopathology*