# Aging and sleep

You'll sleep a little less as you age — resist the rest.



## Takeaways

- Adjust expectations, not effort.

- Cardio fitness protects sleep via RHR.



Sleep is one of the things that declines with age; meta-analysis shows total sleep and deep sleep fall modestly across adulthood. Fine. But don't accept every decline as aging — resist and fight as much of it as possible. Under 25 you're a powerhouse; after that, don't accept frailty, but don't expect a 20-year-old's energy without stimulants either.



## Sources

- Meta-analysis of quantitative sleep parameters from childhood to old age in healthy individuals (Ohayon MM, Carskadon MA, Guilleminault C, Vitiello MV, 2004)

- Effects of exercise on the resting heart rate: a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventional studies (Reimers AK, Knapp G, Reimers CD, 2018)

- National Sleep Foundation's sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary (Hirshkowitz M, Whiton K, Albert SM, et al., 2015)

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Educational summary of published research, not medical advice. Screening scores are not diagnoses. If a score is elevated or you feel unwell, talk to a clinician.

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