Regarding the importance of sleep to the human body, I think everyone should know it. You know, after tens of thousands of years of evolution and reproduction, human beings have developed a unique biological clock, for Chinese, sunrise and daily progress and rest is the common law of life.
Relevant research surveys show that a person spends at least 1/3 of the time on sleep in their lifetime.
Even related health science articles directly point out that adults' daily sleep time should be maintained for at least 6-8 hours.
However, for elderly friends, 8 hours of sleep time is really a luxury. Sleep time is getting less and less, sleep is getting shallower, sleep quality is getting worse and worse, is a common situation for many elderly people.
So the question is, why do people get older and sleep less and less?
1. Aging factors
It can be said that age and aging are the most fundamental reasons that affect the sleep of the elderly. Because the more we grow older, the more it means that the aging and function of various organs of the body are reduced, the body slowly enters a period of decline, and the speed of metabolism will gradually slow down.
Especially in women who have experienced menopause, the level of hormone secretion will gradually decrease, including hormones that affect people's sleep, when these hormones are gradually reduced, sleep will naturally be affected;
2. Life factors
Chinese has reached the retirement age after entering the age of 60, most of the elderly have lived a life of pampering grandchildren, physical activity and mental activity have been greatly reduced, and every day has become a family and a park life.
When physical activity is reduced, physical fatigue will also be reduced, which may indirectly affect the quality of sleep, and the elderly do not need too much sleep time adjustment.
In addition, due to the lack of contact with society and the lack of idleness in some elderly people, they will also have an inexplicable sense of loss and emptiness, and the influence of psychological factors will also cause a decline in sleep quality;
3. Influence of environmental factors
As we all know, people often have difficulty falling asleep in noisy environments, and the older they get, the more sensitive they are to various sounds.
If a large number of people in a family live together, everyone's living habits are different, and the sleeping environment of the elderly is too noisy, which will cause a decline in sleep quality and shorten sleep time.
This is also why the sleep quality of some rural elderly people is better than that of urban elderly people;
4. Disease factors
The length and shortness of sleep time, in addition to being related to age factors, disease is also one of the important reasons.
With the continuous aging of age, the elderly will inevitably be invaded by various diseases, such as the relatively high incidence of three high diseases in China, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, bone and joint diseases, etc., may find the elderly.
Some diseases can cause pain, affect the operation of the central system, and then lead to a decline in the quality of sleep in the elderly. In addition, some drugs can also affect sleep time, resulting in shorter sleep time in the elderly.
In the clinical view, after all, the physical fitness, brain power and physical needs of the elderly can not be compared with the young people, so the elderly due to the shortening of sleep time caused by age factors, there is no need to worry too much, as long as the daily maintenance of 5-6 hours of sleep time can be.
If the elderly do not meet this sleep standard, and the quality of sleep is quite poor, it is necessary to find the reason from life and the body, and then adjust according to the doctor's recommendations, so as to avoid long-term lack of sleep to cause unnecessary harm to the body.