Abstract

Background: Sleep disturbances are particularly common among even the apparently healthy aging population, and its role as a cause or consequence of chronic illness makes it an issue worth addressing. Aims and Objectives: (i) To record and score the sleep architecture in familial senior citizens using polysomnography, (ii) to compare the score with the normative data provided by American Academy of Sleep Medicine for the same age group, and (iii) to compare the polysomnographic recordings of male and female subjects.
Materials and Methods: The study was done on apparently healthy 30 non-institutionalized senior citizens (15 males and 15 females) residing with their families in residential areas of Bengaluru city. Eligible subjects underwent overnight polysomnography. The recorded sleep parameters included total sleep time (TST), sleep latency (SL), rapid eye movement (REM) latency (RL), wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency (SE), and stages N1%, N2%, N3%, and REM%. The data were manually scored, tabulated, and compared with normative data using the appropriate statistical tools.
Results: On statistical analysis, TST was not significantly altered. The SL, RL, wake time after sleep onset, N1%, and N2% were significantly (P < 0.05) increased in the study group compared to normative data. SE, N1%, and N2% are significantly decreased compared to the normative data. Furthermore, males had longer RL and females had greater percentage of N1% compared to each other. Conclusion: The sleep architecture of the senior citizens under study is significantly deviate from the normative data and the causes for this may be altered circadian rhythm, nutritional, hormonal, or psychosocial factors.