Sleep-based Memory Consolidation and Aging

Abstract

It is a known phenomenon that older adults tend to get less sleep and lower sleep quality compared to their younger counterparts, getting worse with age. They also often have difficulty falling asleep, which can be described as long sleep latency, and difficulty staying asleep throughout the night, characterized as low sleep quality. The implications of decreased amount of sleep includes impaired memory, inability to concentrate, reduced physical strength, hallucinations, and mood swings, to name a few. Oddly enough, older adults are able to function relatively normally even after fewer hours of sleep. As such, the current study focuses on the interrelationship between age, sleep, and memory to explain how both decreased hours of sleep and lower sleep quality in older adults affect behavior and cognition.