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disorders are treatable.” Sleep apnea — a sleep disorder in which breathing is


disrupted during sleep, often associated with loud snoring — can be treated with a face or nasal mask worn during the night known as a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) ma- chine. The mask is connected to a pump, which sends a flow of air into the nasal passages to keep airways open as you sleep. Restless leg syndrome, another common sleep disorder, causes an irresistible urge to move the legs during sleep. It can be treated with medication, says Dr. Vitiello.


 What’s not treatable, he says, are age-related changes to the body’s sleep regulatory drive and circadian rhythms that cause older adults to sleep more lightly and want to go to sleep earlier and wake earlier than they did when they were younger. “There are changes occurring in the brain that change how


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you sleep. Nobody should expect the sleep you have at 75 to be the same sleep you had when you were 18. But the vast majority of older adults — if they’re healthy — find even with these changes in sleep they are still functional during the day and can go about their daily routine just fine.” That doesn’t mean that older adults need less sleep than


younger ones, says Lawrence J. Epstein, MD, Assistant Clinical Director of the Sleep Clinic, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It’s a myth that older people need less sleep,” he says. “They still need at least seven hours of sleep every night. It’s just harder for them to get it in a single block.” Some people use daytime naps to meet part of their daily


sleep requirement as they get older, says Dr. Epstein, which is fine as long as those naps are part of a regular routine. “You have to set aside that time every day to get it — otherwise you’ll be sleep deprived,” he says.


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