New research suggests that seniors who find it difficult to get to sleep and those who get little sleep are more likely to die than those who sleep well. Dr Mary Amanda Dew and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found that people aged between 59 and 91 years old who were apparently healthy but who spent more than 30-minutes each night trying to get to sleep were more than twice as likely to die within the next 13-years than people who nodded off more quickly. Furthermore, people who spent the least or the most time in the REM (rapid eye movement), or dream phase of sleep were almost twice as likely to die, compared to those spending an average amount of time in REM. Dew believes that sleep problems may serve as a “subtle indicator” that apparently healthy people may have undetected problems that could affect their health in the future.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Psychosomatic Medicine 2003;65:63-73.
