• Topic
• Later life >> Sleep problems in later life >> Earlier times of poor sleep and their impact on sleep now >> Earlier times of poor sleep and their impact on sleep now

Earlier times of poor sleep and their impact on sleep now

• Later life >> Sleep problems in later life >> Making sense of poor sleep >> Making sense of poor sleep

Making sense of poor sleep

• Clip
• Later life >> Sleep problems in later life >> Men aged 65-74 >> Mike - Interview 12 >> Mike rarely discussed his broken sleep with friends or family because, although he slept quite badly, it wasn’t a concern to him.

Mike works part-time as a test centre administrator. He has noticed a change in his sleep as he has got older, noticeably that he has periods of deeper sleep, but he doesn’t believe he sleeps any longer than he used to. Mike noticed his sleep changed when he first had children, and finds that pattern has continued.

• Later life >> Sleep problems in later life >> Women aged 65-74 >> Dessie - Interview 17 >> Dessie will ring one of her very good friends every morning to talk about how they both slept the night before.

Dessie feels her sleep has got a lot worse, especially since she lost her husband. She finds she sometimes wakes up in the very early hours of the morning and can’t get back to sleep at all. Dessie is very active and likes to keep herself very busy, working in the garden, visiting friends and helping her family.

• Later life >> Sleep problems in later life >> Men aged 65-74 >> John - Interview 15 >> John noticed a change in his sleep pattern at the time of his heart surgery 15 years ago, and this has continued.

John feels that a good night’s sleep for him would be about 7 hours, and the amount of sleep he gets is important to him, even if it is interrupted. Currently John feels he only gets about 5 ½ to 6 hours sleep and would like to get more, but would not seek help from his doctor until he felt lack of sleep impacted on whether he could drive safely. John tries to avoid sleeping during the day because he feels it will impact on how well he sleeps at night.