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Posted on Aug 31, 2008, 8 p.m.
By Jeanelle Topping
Patients undergoing a spell of rehabilitation in a hospital or nursing home may demonstrate a decline in their functional recovery due to sleep at daytime, it has been claimed.
Patients undergoing a spell of rehabilitation in a hospital or nursing home may demonstrate a decline in their functional recovery due to sleep at daytime, it has been claimed.
In news that may be of interest to anti-aging physicians, US researchers examined 245 elderly people with an average age of 80 who were undergoing a rehabilitation period following the onset of conditions including a stroke or heart attack.
The participants were found to spend just over two hours asleep during each day on average and 50 per cent of them recorded clinically significant sleep disturbances during that period.
Principal investigator Cathy Alessi, of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, said: "We were surprised that the results suggested that it was the excessive daytime sleeping in the rehabilitation facility which was associated with less improvement in their physical functioning."
She added that this was also apparent for up to three months.
In related news, desensitization to skin changes may lead to poorer sleep among elderly people with insomnia, Eurekalert reports. 
