Elderly Persons often suffer from insomnia responsible for high morbidity and mortality and lower quality of life. In them somatic and psychiatric diseases must be screened as primary sleep disorders. Transition to chronic phase and benzodiazepines abuse should be avoided by early treatment of causation factors A practical approach to insomnia requires diagnosis and treatment by non pharmacological methods of inducing sleep.
SLEEP PATTERNS IN ELDERLY: Sleep modifications also occur due to ageing and decrease in total sleeptime and fragmentation by frequent nocturnal awakenings. Durations of slow deep sleep and REM sleep decrease. Many pts were complaining of difficulty in falling asleep, maintaining sleep and early awakening affecting about 30% of aging patients