These include students, shift workers, travelers, and persons suffering from acute stress, depression, or chronic pain. And employees working long hours or multiple jobs may find their sleep less refreshing. Older adults also have frequent difficulty with sleep problems, but inadequate sleep is not an inevitable part of the aging process. The total amount of sleep needed isn't reduced. However, many of the sleep stealers can combine in the elderly including impaired health, pain and increased use of medications.
Teenagers can have difficulty falling asleep until late at night and awakening early in the morning.
Many young adults keep relatively irregular hours and as a group they report higher rates of dissatisfaction with the sleep they are getting. Being overweight increases the risk for sleep apnea. Psychological Factors Stress is considered by most sleep experts to be the No. 1 cause of short-term sleeping difficulties. Usually the sleep problem disappears when the stressful situation passes. However, if short-term sleep problems such as insomnia aren't managed properly from the beginning, they can persist long after the original stress has passed.