how did you sleep last night
Not so good, if you’re like most Americans: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 35% of US adults don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis.
This is more than just annoying, as sleeping less than seven hours per night is linked to a greater risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and mental stress.
And this problem is particularly acute among the elderly, who often struggle with sleep disorders. Older adults need about seven to nine hours per night, as do all adults.
But older people tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier than they did when they were younger, according to the National Institute on Aging.
And sleep problems in the elderly can be made worse by having pain, having an illness or taking certain medications.
Most studies on sleep problems have focused on physical and behavioral factors, although the environment is just as influential, Dr. Amir Baniassadi of the Hinda Institute for Aging Research and Arthur Marcus explained in a news release.
To understand the relationship between bedroom temperature and sleep quality, Baniassadi and his colleagues at Hebrew SeniorLife (an affiliate of Harvard Medical School) collected data on nearly 11,000 individual nights of sleep as experienced by 50 older adults.
Researchers have discovered the ideal temperature range for a good night’s sleep.Getty Images
A bad night’s sleep may be caused by a room that is too hot or too cold.Getty Images/iStockphoto
Using wearable sleep monitors and environmental sensors, the researchers monitored sleep duration, efficiency and restlessness over long periods in the participants’ homes.
The findings, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, revealed that sleep was most efficient and restful for older adults when the nighttime ambient temperature ranged from 68 degrees Fahrenheit to 77 degrees.
Additionally, the researchers observed an overall trend: a 5% to 10% decrease in sleep efficiency as the ambient temperature increased from 77 F to 86 F.
“These results highlight the potential to improve sleep quality in older adults by optimizing the thermal environment of the home and emphasize the importance of personalized temperature adjustments based on individual needs and circumstances,” said Baniassadi.
Individual preferences are also an important consideration, as research also reveals significant differences among study subjects when it comes to the optimal bedroom temperature – in other words, some like it warm, while others prefer to keep it cool.
There are significant differences between individuals in terms of what constitutes an ideal sleeping temperature. Getty Images/iStockphoto
That’s one of the reasons why many couples allow themselves “sleep divorces,” sleeping in separate beds — like those sitcom couples from the 1960s — or even in separate rooms.
“There are benefits for some couples to sleep separately,” Dr. Erin Flynn-Evans, a consultant to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, told CBS News. “Studies show that when one sleeping partner experiences sleep disruption, it can negatively affect the other’s sleep.”
A recent survey from the AASM shows that couples are using strategies like earplugs, eye masks, silent alarms and different sleep schedules to accommodate each other and ensure a good night’s rest.
But more than a third of survey respondents skipped all of these stopping steps, choosing instead to put a wall between themselves and the source of their waking problems: their partner.
Other tips for getting a good night’s rest include avoiding eating and drinking late at night, avoiding alcohol and not drinking caffeine late in the day.
The authors of the room temperature study plan to continue this line of inquiry by focusing on the potential effects of a warmer climate on sleep for low-income older adults, and by developing interventions to optimize the sleep environment for these people.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
