Abstract
As the world's population ages, the elevated prevalence of insomnia in older adults is a growing concern. Insomnia is characterized by difficulty falling or remaining asleep, or by non-restorative sleep, and resultant daytime dysfunction. In addition to being at elevated risk for primary insomnia, older adults are at greater risk for comorbid insomnia, which results from, or occurs in conjunction with another medical or psychiatric condition. In this review, we discuss normal changes in sleep that accompany aging, circadian rhythm changes and other factors that can contribute to late-life insomnia, useful tools for the assessment of insomnia and related problems in older people, and both non-pharmacological and pharmacological strategies for the management of insomnia and optimization of sleep in later life.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 247-252 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Maturitas |
Volume | 76 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2013 |
Keywords
- Aging
- Comorbid insomnia
- Primary insomnia
- Treatment
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- Obstetrics and Gynecology