Abnormal sleep patterns dangerous for older menA recent study finds that for men aged 67 and older, abnormal sleep patterns may lead to an increased risk of death. Although the nature of the relationship between abnormal sleep patterns and the increased risk of death is currently unknown, and the findings of the study are not definitive, they have spurred thought on the subject, especially for those who research and treat older men, such as Misti Paudel, the study’s author. "If people think they have disruptions in their sleep, they really do need to see their physician and try to find potential causes or treatment options," said Paudel, a sleep researcher at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Minneapolis. Paudel’s study was the first to examine the possibility of a relationship between sleep patterns and mortality rates in older men. In the study, the researchers looked at 3,053 men, all of whom were older than 67 years of age. The subjects wore wrist actigraphs, devices that measure the movements of the body and help the scientists to analyze whether the subjects are awake or asleep. The study’s subjects wore the actigraphs for as many as 13 nights. "Over the course of a few days, we can see the activity patterns and compare them with other men in the group, start to look at what's normal and not normal," Paudel explained. The authors of the study released their findings at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. "What we found was that men who had [sleeping patterns] that were shifted either earlier or later in the day had an increased risk of mortality," Paudel said. Paudel and her colleagues corrected and adjusted the results of
the study to account for factors such as poor health and alcohol use,
but the differences in mortality rates remained. Those who expended
the greatest amount of energy early in the morning and late at night
were at greatest risk of death.
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Sleep Disorders
"It’s been a hard day’s night (John Lennon and Paul McCartney)
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