Hi Folks,
Just getting ready to head out so I can not give a long response.
David wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Jul 1999, Mark Casteel went:
>
> [a really good little first-day quiz, including...]
>
> > 17. As people age, they sleep less. T
>
> Within the past three years, I've seen a geriatric-medicine text that
> says this isn't so--that older people just distribute their sleep more
> evenly throughout the day. In other words, they shunt some sleep time
> into napping. I'm sorry I can't cite the source.
>
For the most part, it stays the same or decreases by an hour or two.
However, there are changes within sleep and partly due to changes in
norepinephrine levels with age, there is more difficulty falling asleep
and maintaining sleep. Napping is not a norm and should be avoided.
For a brief overview, go to
http://www.healthanswers.com/adam/top/view.asp?filename=004018.htm&rdir
A longer overview: http://206.215.227.10/nsf/publications/sleepage.html#1
For those who want to know more about sleep changes in the aging hamster
(it is similar to humans so this is good even if you could care less
about rodents), go to: http://www.brain.nwu.edu/core/posters/poster18.htm
--
linda m. woolf, ph.d.
associate professor - psychology
webster university
main webpage: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/
Holocaust and genocide studies pages:
http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/holocaust.html
womens' pages: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/women.html
gerontology pages: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/gero.html
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
