One-third of older adults use sleep aids without discussing issues with physician

Preeti Malani

Nearly half of older adults in the United States reported difficulty sleeping and more than one-third take some type of sleep medication, but only one in four older adults discussed their sleep issues with their physician, according to recent poll results.

In April 2017, Preeti Malani, MD, MSJ, MS, from the University of Michigan, and colleagues administered the National Poll on Healthy Aging to a sample of 2,131 adults aged between 50 and 80 years. This study includes responses from 1,065 participants aged between 65 and 80 years regarding sleeping patterns, use of sleep medications and whether they discussed sleep-related concerns with their doctor.

Data from the poll revealed that regular difficulty falling asleep was reported by nearly half of respondents (46%), with 32% reporting difficulty on one to two nights per week and 15% reporting difficulty on three or more nights. Although 41% of respondents were unsure why they had trouble sleeping, the most common reasons for trouble sleeping were having to use the bathroom (50%), worry or stress (25%) and pain (23%).

Use of medication to aid with sleep, such as prescription medications, over-the-counter medications marketed as night-time formulations, herbal/natural sleep aids or prescription pain medications, was reported by 36% of participants overall. Regular or occasional use of at least one medication for sleep was reported by 14% and 23% of participants, respectively.

Sixty percent of participants who reported difficulty falling asleep three or more nights a week used medication to help with sleep either regularly (31%) or occasionally (29%).

Most respondents (62%) who took prescription sleep medications reported using them long-term for more than 3 years. More than half of all participants (54%) reported the belief that poor sleep is a natural component of aging. Sleep was described as “somewhat of a problem” by 29% of respondents and “a great deal of a problem” by 7%.

Discussing methods to improve sleep with physicians was reported by 26% of all respondents. Of those, 62% reported that the physician offered helpful advice, whereas 31% reported that the advice was not helpful and 7% reported that they received no advice. Participants who did not discuss ways to improve sleep with their physician most commonly reported not doing so because they believed sleep was not a health issue (34%), they had other concerns to discuss (31%), they did not remember to ask (21%) and they thought the physician could not help (17%).

“The poll results are a concern for older adults for a couple reasons,” Malani told Healio Internal Medicine. “One, poor sleep isn’t an inevitable aspect of aging. If someone is having a lot of difficulty sleeping — falling asleep, waking up and being unable to fall back asleep, not feeling rested — these are issues primary care providers should be aware of. Sometimes there is a medical issue that is presenting as a sleep issue. The second issue is that sleep medications can have side effects. The over-the-counter use is especially concerning because this use may not even come up during a regular patient care.”

She added, “Doctors and other health care providers should add sleep concerns to their usual list of topics that get discussed during visits. There isn’t always an easy fix, but sleep concerns should be thought of as important health concerns.” – by Alaina Tedesco

Disclosure: The authors report receiving funding from AARP and Michigan Medicine.