You are supposed to spend roughly a third of your life asleep. But some seniors have a rough time getting that third.
WebMD says, “More than half of men and women over age 60 complain of at least one sleep problem. Many older people sleep less, experience more fragmented sleep and spend less time in deep sleep.”
Not getting enough sleep has serious health implications. Studies have indicated loss of sleep increases the health risk. Tossing and turning, long, sleepless nights are exhausting — physically and mentally. They're usually unnecessary, experts say, and can be counteracted by minor dietary changes.
"The majority of people with insomnia could be sleeping like puppies if they made just a few changes," according to Jacob Teitelbaum, medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, which are located nationwide, and author of From Fatigued to Fantastic.
Eat bananas daily. I put half of a banana on my cereal many mornings. Bananas are full of potassium and magnesium, which are muscle relaxants. Bananas also have an amino acid called tryptophan, which turns into serotonin and melatonin in your brain. They promote relaxation and sleepiness.
Dr. Teitelbaum also advises that high-protein foods promote sleep as well as fighting acid reflux. A couple of slices of lean meat or cheese, a hard-boiled egg, or cottage cheese mixed with fruit also are recommended.
Almonds also are full of protein and can promote relaxation. Have a handful before bedtime, he suggests. I don’t eat almonds because you chew forever and never seem to finish them.
Donald Hensrud, chair of the division of preventive medicine at Mayo Clinic, says drinking a glass of warm milk before bedtime has a sedative effect because it’s full of tryptophan, which has a sedative effect. It also has calcium, which regulates production of melatonin.
Cherries are one of the only natural sources of melatonin, according to a study in the Journal of Experimental Botany. Green tea also helps induce sleep. It contains thiamine, a sleep promoter.
A bowl of oatmeal is packed with most of the sleep-promoting nutrients. But go easy on the sugar. It has a negative effect.
Steer clear of high-fat meals. A greasy burger and fries may make you feel tired by cutting off some oxygen to your brain, doctors say. But research shows that people who eat meals heavy with calories and fat can make digestion difficult and aren’t inducive to sleep.
Go easy on the caffeine late in the afternoon or evening. Coffee affects different people differently. My grandmother used to have a pot of coffee by her bedside and said she often had a cup if she woke up during the night.
Researchers in a recent study were intrigued by an apparent discrepancy. In spite of what insomnia patients say, they often appear able to perform cognitive tasks as well as those getting plenty of sleep, even though the sleep-starved say they feel like they’re “running through mud.”
I guess I don’t eat enough bananas and cherries, because I wake up often at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. I’ll lie awake for an hour or so with various thoughts racing through my mind. Sometimes, I’ll have a story idea and proceed to craft some of it in my mind. Sometimes there are memories or attempts to recall details of the past.
Then there’s always — for older men — the problem of an enlarged prostate, which means crawling out of bed three or four times a night to go to the bathroom. This is especially the case if you have a beer in the evening. The beer may be relaxing, but “the quality of sleep changes,” warned Dr. Hensrud. And. it usually means more trips to the bathroom.
Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep. Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They may occur 30 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.
Scientists studying mice at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, found that lowering the oxygen levels to what occurs in sleep apnea patients, the mice expressed higher levels of anxiety and depression. They also discovered that exposed to a dim light at night created impediments in their memorizing abilities. They also found reduced cell size in the hippocampus of the mice. — the area of the brain used for learning and memorizing. So sleep apnea should be treated medically if it occurs.
Many sleep applications are on the market. An app with quite a bit of science behind it is Sleep Genius. It was used to help astronauts sleep. It supposedly engages the auditory system, vestibular or motion sensory system and brain arousal to keep a person sleeping deeper and longer.
Nighty-night.
Tait Trussell is an old guy and fourth-generation professional journalist who writes extensively about aging issues among a myriad of diverse topics.