There is nothing more rewarding after a long sixteen hours of being very busy than getting those much needed eight hours of sleep. As life progresses some need it more than others, growing children and adolescents more than adults, and the elderly surprisingly need just about the same amount of hours as young children. There are many reasons for the elderly needing more as they can be witnessed taking naps during the day, having their achy joints waking them up, the pineal gland producing less melatonin, or simply just being extra sensitive to noises or other sudden changes.
Consequences are not at all great, being in a bad mood, excessive daytime drowsiness, nighttime falls, accidents, poor memory and becoming too dependent on medications. The elderly have so many other health conditions to worry about that usually lack of rest is typically something that is given much thought, but it is a must since the simple fact that a bad fall could debilitate the body. Taking all of the normal
fall prevention measures might not cover everything if a full night of shut eye didn't took place.
What are some ways that might help? First of all choose not to worry about it and relax. The old saying that "counting sheep does the job" might be the solution, or simply turning all distractions off; television set, fans, lights, whatever could be interfering. Of course one must be comfortable, in order to find such warm comfort set a day apart in your weekend and shop for whatever is going to fulfill your idea of being asleep. Nice blankets, comforter, your favorite color, candles, lighting, making inviting, after all your job is to invite great, restful sleep into your life. Other things are simple use your common sense, don't drink alcohol nor coffee and skip on the smoking of cigarettes since the nicotine in such has stimulate effects.
If after making many changes not being able to get a complete night's rest is still not occurring then the next step would be to seek professional help. Since at this point we would be looking at more serious medical condition causes of such as incontinence, heartburn, menopause, osteoarthritis and in men prostate enlargement. Some may say that sleeplessness or insomnia is another side effected of getting older, but its a problem that affects the young and middle aged as well, all that has to be done is to get it under control, to function better and avoid all sorts of accidents with more serious consequences.
