Sleep disorders in the elderly: rationale for clinical awareness.

Complaints about sleep are extremely common in the elderly, leading to an impression that aging-related sleep problems are virtually normal and benign. However, studies have shown that such complaints as habitual snoring, frequent awakening, nocturnal sweating, and awakening with anxiety, may be signs of genuine sleep disorders. The most prevalent and most serious aging-related sleep disorder is sleep apnea. There is recent evidence of an association between sleep apnea and circulatory disorders, including hypertension, stroke, and angina pectoris, and with reduced life expectancy. The older sleep apnea victim may not complain of daytime sleepiness, the usual symptom in younger patients. Sleep apnea, and several other sleep disorders of the elderly are treatable, once an accurate diagnosis is made. Physicians are urged to make questions about sleep as routine as the taking of blood pressure.