As newborns, people start out needing up to 17 hours a day of sleep. Obviously, that changes as we age. By the time we hit our teenage years, we need anywhere from 9 to 11 hours of sleep each night. The difference is based on each person’s individual makeup, and varies from person to person. By the time we reach adulthood until about the age of 64, we need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep, and adults ages 65 and over need between 7 and 8 hours of sleep. So it is true that we need fewer hours of sleep as we age. There are anecdotal cases of older adults who need only 5 hours of sleep to feel refreshed, just as there are cases of older adults who need a full 10 hours to feel fully rested. But the average amount of sleep needed as we age is between 7 and 8 hours.
If we don’t get enough sleep, all kinds of problems can begin to occur. For one, we may be irritable or have a bad temper after even one night of bad sleep, and this can get worse as the bad nights add up. We can become confused and forget things that we normally wouldn’t forget. Although this can be a sign of different types of dementia, it could simply be due to a lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to thousands of accidents every year among older adults. When we can’t sleep, we need to find out why and do something about it.
One cause of a lack of sleep as we age could be teeth grinding or clenching when you are asleep. Teeth grinding is called bruxism and happens to many older adults because the enamel tends to wear down on our teeth over the years. The added wear from grinding teeth during sleep can wear the enamel down enough to expose the nerves of our teeth and this can be very painful. Jaw clenching is often a symptom of TMJ, which is a misalignment or wearing down of the joint that connects our jaw at the top. You may notice a clicking noise when you eat—that is generally from TMJ. These nighttime maladies are easy to fix with the help of the CustMbite Nightguard.