Among the elderly, insomnia is associated with the quality of sleep, and not, according to American experts from the University of Chicago, with its duration.
As part of the study, they found that sleep problems can be much more related to the quality of rest and other health problems than the total amount of sleep a person receives.
727 people were invited to participate in the scientific experiment, who gave answers to questions related to the quality and duration of sleep. In addition, a sensor, worn on the wrist, was monitored for each participant, which monitors sleep. As a result, actigraphy showed that most elderly people received the necessary amount of sleep – on average it was 7 hours 15 minutes. Despite this, according to the survey, approximately 13% of elderly people said that they very rarely or never feel rested during morning awakening. Somewhere, 12% talked about problems with falling asleep, 30% said they regularly have problems with waking up during the night, and 13% said they wake up very early and cannot sleep again most of the time.
According to researchers, this indicates that most older people receive the recommended amount of sleep, although they also have problems with its quality. In addition, experts found that people who often wake up at night had a longer sleep.