This Is Why Sleeping Gets Harder As You Get Older

SLEEP

by Elizabeth Bennett |
Published on

Do you feel like getting a peaceful night’s kip is just getting harder and harder as you get older? Well, it may be down to science. New research from UC Berkeley has found evidence to suggest sleep quality declines with age.

In a study published in Neuron, scientists argue that as we age our brain mechanisms change and find it harder to determine when you are tired. This subsequently makes it more difficualt for us to get a full night's shut eye.

The UC Berkeley researchers specified that the decline can begin as early as your late twenties, and rather depressingly, by the time you’re in your fifties you spend half as much time in deep sleep as you did when you were in your twenties.

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‘It’s almost like a radio antenna that’s weak. The signal is there, but the antenna just can’t pick it up,’ explained Matthew Walker, U.C. Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology, and the review's co-author.

However, it is not all doom and gloom, the authors of the study hope that this research breakthrough will help them develop medication and alternative therapies.

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