Insomnia among older adults may be tied to sleep quality, and not sleep duration, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Chicago found that sleep problems may stem from the quality of rest and other health concerns more than the overall amount of sleep that patients get.
An estimated 30 per cent of adults report having some symptoms of insomnia, which includes difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early and then not feeling well rested during the daytime, researchers said.
The study used data from 727 participants in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project in the US who were randomly invited to participate in an "Activity and Sleep Study."
The activity and sleep study had two components: a self-administered sleep booklet, which included questions about the person's sleep experience, (eg, "how often do you feel really rested when you wake up in the morning?") and 72-hours of wrist actigraphy, which is a wristwatch-like sensor that monitors sleep patterns and movements.
The actigraph measurements showed that most of the older adults got sufficient amounts of sleep.
Even though reported sleep problems are common among older individuals, according to the survey only about 13 per cent of older adults in the study said that they rarely or never feel rested when waking up in the morning.
About 12 per cent reported often having trouble falling asleep, 30 per cent indicated they regularly had problems with waking up during the night and 13 per cent reported problems with waking up too early and not being able to fall asleep again most of the time.
The actigraph provided data that showed the average duration of sleep period among the study participants was 7.9 hours and the average total sleep time was 7.25 hours.
Linda Waite, an author on the study, said this indicates that the majority of older adults are getting the recommended amount of sleep and usually not having common sleep problems.
Researchers also found that respondents who reported waking up more frequently during the night had more total sleep time.
"This suggests that a question about feeling rested may tap into other aspects of older adults' everyday health or psychological experience," said Waite.
"Our findings suggest that reports of what seem like specific sleep problems from survey questions may be more accurately viewed as indicators of general problems or dissatisfaction with sleep that may be due to other issues in their lives affecting their overall well-being," she said.
The study was published in Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
