ABSTRACT
The appropriate treatment of sleep disorders in the elderly is an issue of scientific and public health importance. The physiologic need for nocturnal sleep diminishes with age. As a consequence, older individuals as a group generally will have shorter sleep duration and longer sleep latency than younger persons.1-9 While this by itself is not a reflection of medical or psychiatric disease, it can have a very negative impact on the subjective quality of life in the elderly. Increased wake time during the nocturnal hours will reinforce feelings of loneliness and detachment, particularly in the elderly living by themselves, as well as impairing daytime energy and alertness.10-12 Sleep disorders also commonly accompany medical and psychiatric disease in the elderly. Examples include dyspnea due to congestive heart failure, arthritic or neuropathic pain, or nocturnal polyuria from prostatic hypertrophy or incompletely controlled diabetes.
