Evidence suggests that up to half of adults aged 65 and over experience symptoms of insomnia. In the current study, researchers assessed the link between symptoms of insomnia, sleep medication use, and disability.
To do so, they analyzed data from 6,722 participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a national sample of Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older. Data was gathered between 2011 and 2015 and included over 22,000 individual observations.
Measures included levels of disability when carrying out daily activities, the average frequency of longer sleep onset latency, trouble staying asleep, and frequency of sleep medication use. Ultimately, the researchers found that higher frequency of insomnia symptoms and more sleep medication use were linked to higher disability scores.
They further found that frequency of sleep medication use influenced the link between insomnia symptoms and disability. While frequent insomnia symptoms were linked to elevated disability scores, using sleep medications often resulted in an even higher increase in disability scores than symptoms of insomnia alone.
"As an average example, these numbers suggest that an older adult who increased their sleep medication use from 'never' to 'every night' over the course of five years would be likely to develop a clinically significant disability. On an individual level, we cannot predict risk so specifically, but if an older adult has prolonged sleep problems and/or sleep-medication use over time, they are very likely to become disabled,” lead author of the study, Tuo-Yu "Tim" Chen, assistant professor of global health and health security at Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, said in a press release.
The findings indicate that treating insomnia and managing sleep medication may help prevent disability among older adults, concluded the researchers in their study.
Sources: Science Daily, Sleep
