Study reveals excellent sleep in centenarians

It seems that when people get really old ie over 100 they sleep very well, around 7.5 hours including naps. A new study from China reports that the oldest people ie those aged 100 and more were 70 per cent more likely to report good quality of sleep than people in the 65 to 79 age bracket. There was a 23 per cent greater incidence of better sleep quality being reported by men than by women.

Sleep quality was less likely to be reported by respondents who suffered from anxiety, had at least one chronic disease or experienced difficulties with everyday tasks.

Danan Gu, head of research at the faculty of the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, Oregon, said: "Age and health conditions are the two most important factors associated with self-reported sleep quality and duration."

Participating in the research study were 15,638 adults aged 65 and older. Of these, 3,927 were aged between 90 and 99 years and 2,794 who were at least 100 years of age. All the adults in the study were spread over 22 provinces in mainland China.

china is indeed a valuable resource for studies of healthy longevity in older and very old people as it has the largest elderly population in the world, with a total population of more than 1.3 billion people.

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