Your sleep quality declines as you age!

When people are tired,they generally assume that they need to sleep earlier so as to give their body some rest. Although it is not as simple as it seems. Your sleep involves more than your bedtime. What happens behind the scenes determines how you feel in the morning. It all depends upon your sleep quality.  There are eight different measures that determine sleep quality. Many of these measures decline with age. Therefore your sleep age is based on how youthful & effective your sleep is.

These measures are discussed below:

1. Sleep Duration: This refers to how long you sleep from the moment you doze off to the moment you wake up for the day. Sleep duration gets shorter with age. Although it is unclear whether this is a symptom or cause of neurodegeneration, sleep duration is shortened impacted by various age related disease processes & chronic illnesses. The reason for this is Pineal gland, the gland in your brain that releases sleep hormones does not work well as you age. It is a vicious circle- less sleep, less repair to the brain, less effective brain, less sleep. People generally assume that they did not sleep enough, however sleep duration is only one of the major reasons for decline in sleep quality. People generally require restful sleep to be energized for the next day. A general advice to have 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. However more than 80% of people have less than 6 hours of sleep due to their professional & personal commitments.
2. Sleep efficiency: This refers to that amount of time you spend on bed when you are actually sleeping. Sleep efficiency below 80% is an issue. To feel freshened & energetic, you need to focus on spending not more than 10% twisting & turning on bed. If that is not the case, you need to add more exercise to your days. If you are not hitting your sleep hormone rhythms, there is a need to adjust your bedtime until you find a sweet spot.
3. Awakenings: Everyone, even champion sleepers wake up several times a night. You won’t remember if it lasted a minute or two. However if your sleep breaks lasts longer than that then you shall be aware of awakenings. Your sleep efficiency takes a hit when your awakenings last 20 minutes or more.
4. Sleep onset latency: If you fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down, there are higher chances that either you are sleep deprived or you have solid active evening routine & your brain responds to established sleep cues. Falling asleep within 10 to 20 minutes of lying down is perfect
5. Deep Sleep Duration:  Deep sleep lasts an hour or so each night but a lot happens during this phase- cell repair, cognitive power & memory are directly related to deep sleep & it also declines with age. When you are in your early 20’s, your deep sleep lasts around 90 minutes which declines to 30 minutes range as you grow older. Since you do cannot assess your own sleep when you are unconscious, you have to rely on sleep trackers 
6. Rem Sleep Duration/Dreaming Sleep Stage: During Rapid Eye Movement(REM), your brain shows as much activity as it does when you are awake & aware. Experiences from the day strengthen into learned processes and memories  and it helps you stay in control of your emotions. REM sleep is so important that people who are sleep deprived have problems remembering what they practiced during that day. REM sleep also helps in maintaining a healthy weight. You should focus on spending 20% of your sleep time in REM sleep. You can use a sleep tracker to keep close watch on this.
7. Brain Arousals: During sleep, your brain arouses a number of times & your brain can be easily disturbed as you age. This is different from awakenings in the sense that they last for a smaller period of time & generally respond to changes in sleep environment. Too many arousals prevent you from getting into more restorative sleep.
8. Timing: A consistent & regular bed time will keep your rhythmic cycle intact. Your brain will know when to start releasing sleep hormones to make sleep onset easier. Timing matters since your brain gets a surge of cortisol after you get asleep that your brain is used for repair & connection processes. If you are not asleep when the surge hits there is higher chances that you will awake again & your brain does not get the required energy. Target for consistent bedtime every night.