Daytime Sleepiness in the Healthy “Old Old”: A Comparison with Young Adults

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Abstract
Objective: To determine if excessive daytime sleepiness is an inevitable consequence of aging.Methods: Daytime sleepiness was measured using Multiple Sleep Latency Tests (MSLT's) before and after a night of total sleep deprivation in a sample of 22 healthy men and women in their eighties and 29 men and women in their twenties.Results: Young adults were somewhat sleepier than elders, as measured by rapidity of sleep onset during daytime nap recordings using the MSLT, and showed a higher incidence of REM sleep during naps. However, recovery from the effects of acute sleep loss was slower in the elderly, judging from the presence of more daytime sleepiness 2 days after a night of total sleep deprivation. Such persistent sleepiness was absent in the young adult control group.Conclusions: Healthy persons in late old age may have a level of daytime sleepiness no greater than, and perhaps even less than, that seen in healthy young adults.