Study Links Sleep Medications, Insomnia to Disability in Seniors

 

Well, hasn't your competent? doctor has known of this for years?

• sleeping pills (34 posts to July 2014)

 

Or this for a great click-bait title!

Wow, a two night study and this fantastic headline was created. Don't do this until much more research is created.

These sleeping pills could help reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Your doctor should be prescribing sex instead.  

For Some, Sex Is Better Sleep Aid Than Pill, Small Survey Finds

Two-thirds of people who use sleep meds said they slept just as well or better after sex.

The latest here:

Study Links Sleep Medications, Insomnia to Disability in Seniors

Older adults who experienced frequent insomnia symptoms or regularly used sleep medication may be at a significantly higher risk of developing disability a year later, according to a new longitudinal study published in Sleep.

The study revealed that for each year an individual experienced worsening insomnia symptoms, their risk of developing functional disability increased by 20%. A similar level of heightened risk was observed among individuals with increased usage of sleep medications. Meanwhile, individuals with both insomnia and frequent sleep medication use faced the highest disability risk.

“When we evaluated the relationships between disability, insomnia and sleep medication use, we found that as older people used more sleep medication or experienced more insomnia symptoms, they moved more rapidly towards greater disability,” said Orfeu Buxton, Elizabeth Fenton Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State, Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty and co-author of the study.

The analysis included over 22,000 individual observations from 6,722 participants -- all aged ≥65 years – in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), which were collected between 2011 and 2015.

The NHATS dataset incorporated yearly disability assessments using a validated questionnaire that evaluated both self-care activities -- dressing, eating, toileting, and showering -- and mobility functions -- getting out of bed, moving around indoors, and venturing outside. A validated numeric disability scale was utilised to quantify the association between these variables.

For each activity, participants were classified as fully able, vulnerable (ie, requiring accommodations or experiencing difficulty), or requiring assistance. Disability scores were assigned accordingly, with higher scores indicating greater impairment.

Insomnia symptoms and sleep medication use were both measured across 5 frequency levels -- from “never” to “every night” -- and scored from 1 to 5. On average, each level increase in insomnia symptom frequency was associated with a 0.20-point increase in the disability score the following year. Similarly, each level increase in sleep medication use was linked to a 0.19-point increase in score.

“These results indicate that both insomnia and sleep medication use may be contributing to disability,” said lead author Tuo-Yu “Tim” Chen, assistant professor at Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan. “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 5 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.”

The study built on previous work by the same team, which found that sleep medications increased fall risk among older adults -- a possible contributor to disability. 

“Insomnia can decrease a person’s quality of life both directly and indirectly,” added co-author Soomi Lee, associate professor at Penn State College of Health and Human Development. “Any older adult who experiences insomnia or uses sleep medication needs to talk to their physician about sleep.”

The authors emphasised that non-pharmacological interventions, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, offer a safer and effective alternative for managing insomnia in older populations. 

Reference: https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsaf098/8113190 

SOURCE: Penn State College of Health and Human Development