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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 21|pp 21942—21958

Sex differences in subjective age-associated changes in sleep: a prospective elderly cohort study

Seung Wan Suh1, Ji Won Han2, Ji Hyun Han2, Jong Bin Bae2, Woori Moon2, Hye Sung Kim2, Dae Jong Oh2, Kyung Phil Kwak3, Bong Jo Kim4, Shin Gyeom Kim5, Jeong Lan Kim6, Tae Hui Kim7, Seung-Ho Ryu8, Seok Woo Moon9, Joon Hyuk Park10, Seonjeong Byun2, Jiyeong Seo11, Jong Chul Youn12, Dong Young Lee13,14, Dong Woo Lee15, Seok Bum Lee16, Jung Jae Lee16, Jin Hyeong Jhoo17, Ki Woong Kim2,14,18
  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
  • 2Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea
  • 3Department of Psychiatry, Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital, Gyeongju, Korea
  • 4Department of Psychiatry, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea
  • 5Department of Neuropsychiatry, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Bucheon, Korea
  • 6Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea
  • 7Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Wonju, Korea
  • 8Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
  • 9Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Konkuk University Chungju Hospital, Chungju, Korea
  • 10Department of Neuropsychiatry, Jeju National University Hospital, Jeju, Korea
  • 11Department of Psychiatry, Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, Changwon, Korea
  • 12Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kyunggi Provincial Hospital for the Elderly, Yongin, Korea
  • 13Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea
  • 14Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
  • 15Department of Neuropsychiatry, Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul, Korea
  • 16Department of Psychiatry, Dankook University Hospital, Cheonan, Korea
  • 17Department of Psychiatry, Kangwon National University, School of Medicine, Chuncheon, Korea
  • 18Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul, Korea
Received: April 21, 2020Accepted: August 22, 2020Published: November 7, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.104016

Copyright: © 2020 Suh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Subjective age-associated changes in sleep (AACS) and sex differences in AACS have never been prospectively investigated in elderly populations. We compared the AACS every 2 years over a total of 6 years between 4,686 community-dwelling healthy men and women aged 60 years or older who participated in the Korean Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Aging and Dementia. Sleep parameters including sleep duration, latency, and efficiency, mid-sleep time, daytime dysfunction, and overall subjective sleep quality were measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index at baseline and at each follow-up. The effects of time and sex on subjective sleep parameters were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. During the 6 years of follow-up, we observed that overall, sleep latency increased, while daytime dysfunction and sleep quality worsened. Significant sex differences in AACS was found, with women showing shortened sleep duration, delayed mid-sleep time, and decreased sleep efficiency over 6 years. Sleep quality worsened in both groups but a more pronounced change was observed in women. Clinicians should be cautious in determining when to treat declared sleep disturbances in this population.