Snooze Alarm

It’s inevitable, the older you get the more sleep-deprived you feel. But, are those who claim they suffer insomnia really getting less sleep than the rest of us? The Association of Mature American Citizens cites a recent study in which researchers at University of Chicago used new, minimally-invasive technology to record what really happens when seniors retire for the night.

It turns out that many people who say they can’t sleep may only think they can’t. For example, 42 percent of those who participated in the study said they rarely, if ever, had trouble falling asleep. On average, the wrist-monitors they wore showed that it took them about 27 minutes to nod off for the night. Twelve-percent said they usually had trouble falling asleep at night, but their monitors showed that it took them only about four minutes longer fall asleep.

The study showed that those who said they got less sleep because they woke up at night, actually slept an average of 19 minutes longer than those who said they usually slept through the night. And, it concluded that test subjects who complained that they woke up too early in the mornings got just about the same amount of total sleep time as their counterparts who said getting up early didn’t bother them.

No doubt that perceptions of sleep are subjective and, according to the researchers, it may be that some of us don’t get enough so-called deep sleep-the kind that babies and teen-agers enjoy.