ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Both psychiatric disorders and sleep disorders are significant public health issues in the geriatric population. While the prevalence of sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless legs syndrome has a pronounced increase across the lifespan (1-3), the prevalence of psychiatric conditions such as mood and anxiety disorders remains somewhat constant frommiddle to old age (4). Sleep disturbance is a symptom criterion across a number of psychiatric illnesses, including many of the mood and anxiety disorders as delineated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th revision (DSM) (5). Most commonly, the sleep disturbance is in the form of an insomnia complaint and to a lesser extent it relates to hypersomnia and other common disorders of sleep such as sleep apnea. Alterations in sleep architecture are evidenced across a variety of mood and anxiety disorders when sleep is subjected to polysomnographic evaluation. It is also the case that a host of psychotropic medications either alter sleep architecture and/or contribute to subjective sleep complaints.
