HOMESTATIC FACTORS IN AGE RELATED SLEEP DISTURBANCE

与年龄相关的睡眠生理变化导致夜间时间减少 65岁以上人群的睡眠时间。夜间睡眠时间 与年轻的相比，平均减少了大约2小时 成年人。睡眠时间减少的后果包括睡眠质量下降 生活，特别是在白天表现的减少和 心情。已经采取了许多方法来尝试增加睡眠 质量(例如，合并、昼夜节律放置)具有不同级别的 成功。大幅增加总睡眠时间的目标一直较少 成功，可能是因为老化的睡眠系统的能力降低 在晚上获得额外的睡眠时间。 尽管在老年人中增加夜间睡眠时间可能很困难 人口中，增加24小时的睡眠时间是很有可能的 通过利用强健的生物倾向在特定的时间睡觉 清醒的一天的阶段。我们最近完成的研究，目前的研究 提案是相互竞争的延续，支持以前的工作，表明 事实上，年长的人可以对这第二个首选阶段的位置做出反应 对于睡眠，可以在白天获得相当数量的睡眠。 重要的是，这些数据和其他数据也有力地表明，这种白天的睡眠 发作不会对夜间睡眠产生负面影响。最后，还有一个很强的 午睡可以显著改善认知和精神运动的证据 在午睡后的几个小时里，表演得很敏锐。 拟议的项目将采用主题内、平衡的设计来 评估有策略地安排午睡机会对认知和 老年人的精神运动表现水平和情绪。它是 假设，相对于不午睡的情况，在 昼夜节律最高温度的时间将导致显著增加 在24小时的睡眠时间内，不会影响随后的夜间时段。 此外，睡眠量的增加将导致性能和 午睡后立即和第二天的情绪都是如此。 这项研究被认为是朝着发展一种自然和 易于实施的补充老年人睡眠的策略， 其结果是增强的唤醒功能和改进的质量 生活。

Age-related changes in sleep physiology lead to reduced nighttime sleep durations in individuals over 65 years of age. Nighttime sleep amounts are decreased by an average of approximately 2 hours when compared to young adults. The consequences of curtailed sleep amounts include a decreased quality of life, particularly with respect to reductions in daytime performance and mood. A number of approaches have been taken in an attempt to increase sleep quality (e.g., consolidation, circadian placement) with varying levels of success. The goal of substantially increasing total sleep time has been less successful, perhaps due to a reduced capacity of the aging sleep system to achieve additional sleep time at night. Although increasing nighttime sleep durations may be difficult in this older population, it may be quite possible to increase twenty-four hour sleep amounts by taking advantage of the robust biological tendency to sleep at a specific phase of the waking day. Our recently completed study, for which the current proposal is a COMPETING CONTINUATION, supports previous work indicating that older individuals can, indeed, respond to this second preferred phase position for sleep and can obtain significant amounts of sleep during the daytime. Importantly, these and other data also strongly suggest that such daytime sleep episodes do not negatively affect nighttime sleep. Finally, there is strong evidence that napping can significantly improve cognitive and psychomotor performance, both acutely and for many hours following the nap. The proposed project will employ a within-subjects, counterbalanced design to evaluate the effects of a strategically placed nap opportunity on cognitive and psychomotor performance levels and mood in older individuals. It is hypothesized that, relative to the no-nap condition, a nap opportunity near the time of the circadian temperature maximum will result in a significant increase in 24-hour sleep amounts, and will not affect the subsequent nighttime period. Further, the increase in sleep amounts will lead to improved performance and mood both immediately following the nap and throughout the next day. This study is viewed as the first step towards the development of a natural and easy-to-implement strategy for supplementing the sleep of older individuals, with the resulting benefits of enhanced waking function and improved quality of life.