In just a few decades of life, we spend nearly 1/3 of our time on sleep!
Everyone needs sleep, and the purpose of sleep is to allow all organs to get full rest and adjustment, to provide motivation and energy for the next day's work and life, so that you can support all the physical and mental activities of the day.
Therefore, adequate sleep time is one of the foundations of human health, and because of this, many health articles have emphasized the content of sleep, and even some articles directly point out: adult sleep time, at least 8 hours a day!
However, there are many elderly middle-aged and elderly people, especially those around 60 years old, who do not sleep enough for 6 hours a day, and most of them get up at 5-6 o'clock to start activities, and the sleep time is significantly shorter than when they were young. Is it true that to force the elderly to sleep, they must sleep enough for 8 hours to really maintain good health? wrong!
In fact, everyone's age group is different, and the sleep time required is different, and we can't use a data standard to ask everyone to adjust according to this standard. According to WHO studies for many years, as the age gradually increases, the amount of melatonin secreted in the elderly will decrease day by day, and this hormone is directly related to sleep;
At the same time, after entering the perimenopause period, women are affected by ovarian aging, and the secretion of hormones in the body will gradually be disturbed, which will also affect sleep, and women at this stage can have symptoms such as insomnia, early awakening, and shortened sleep time. Men, on the other hand, are affected by the aging of various organs in the body, and the reduction of androgen secretion, and the sleep time will also be shortened;
Moreover, in China, the elderly over 60 years old have basically reached the age of retirement and pension, their daily physical activity is getting less and less, and even mental activity is decreasing, and the sense of physical exhaustion is far from being comparable to that of young adults. There are many elderly people who are retired at home, and sometimes they don't even go out for a day;
Reduced activity, less physical fatigue, and worse melatonin secretion, shortened sleep time in the elderly is normal. For the elderly over 60 years old, 8 hours is not the best golden sleep time, and the WHO recommendation is that after the age of 60, only 5-6 hours of sleep per day can be maintained, which is enough to allow the body to get full rest.
Of course, different people, living environment, physical conditions are not the same, the elderly sleep time also has a hard requirement. Just tell everyone that the shortening of sleep time is normal, if the elderly can maintain 7-8 hours of sleep every day, this is also a normal physiological performance, you must deliberately shorten your sleep time.
However, it should be emphasized here that the elderly need to avoid drowsiness as much as possible, and it is best not to sleep more than 10 hours a day. Especially in the elderly who already have three high diseases and atherosclerosis, sleep for too long, are affected by slower blood circulation and water consumption, which can increase the burden of heart pumping and increase the chance of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases!
Moreover, if you stay asleep for a long time, brain tissue can be in a state of hypoxia due to slowing down blood flow, which can easily lead to cognitive impairment, memory decline, and may even increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease in the elderly for a long time.
Therefore, sleeping too long and too short has no benefit to physical health, and it is necessary to maintain healthy sleep time and sleep habits.
In addition, if the elderly have recently experienced dizziness, drowsiness, frequent yawning and other symptoms, this may be a signal that cerebral infarction is about to be reported, and it is necessary to seek medical examination in time.