Elder People More Likely to have Sleeping Problems

Image by Bandido of Oz via Flickr

The "Belgian Association for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine" (BASS) made a study about insomnia and other sleeping problems testing 1000 Belgians. At least one out of three Belgian aged over 35 lies awake during the night.

The investigation was initiated in response to the International Day of Sleep 2010, tomorrow Friday 19the of March ("Sleep Well, Stay Healthy").  It shows that 1 in 5 people under 35 suffer from insomnia. At least 1 out of 3 of the participants aged over 35 have trouble to get to sleep, the persons over 65 especially having problems to sleep through the night in one go.

Little Medication

Remarkably few Belgians take sleep medication to tackle the problem. Only 2% of those aged under 35 take a drug (like sedatives for instance) to get asleep. This percentage increases upto 10% for Belgians over 45.

The BASS stresses that sleep medication under the form of pharmaceutical drugs is indeed useful as a short term solution, in the long run (alternative) behavioral treatment will be much more efficient.