Sleep of healthy seniors: a revisit

In an EEG sleep study of 40 healthy seniors (19 men and 21 women) aged 58-82 years, men could not maintain sleep as well as women and experienced less stage 3 sleep. The increased wakefulness after sleep onset among the men was particularly marked during the last 2 h of recording. REM density (during the first and second REM periods) showed an interaction of sex and age effects: thus, women in their 60s had higher REM density than men, whereas men in their 70s had higher REM density than women. In both men and women, however, regardless of age, the temporal distribution of REM sleep and REM density during the night was flat. Finally, only a mild degree of sleep-disordered breathing was noted, with positive age effects on apnea/hypopnea index and maximal duration of apnea. These findings are reviewed in relation to the sleep and aging literature.