Reading through a copy of the New Scientist from a few weeks back (2 February edition), I was struck by the comment in an article on the effects of sleep on the human body by Nancy Wesensten, a psychologist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland:
Sleeping deteriorates like everything else does as you age… People have more difficulty falling asleep, and that could account for the cognitive decline we see in normal ageing.
Until I started a vigorous exercise regime about 16 months ago, I really did find it difficult to fall asleep. Since then, while I don’t have my partner’s ability to more or less doze off as soon as my head hits the pillow, I generally no longer have a problem.
I have often seen claims made for exercise as a means of maintaining mental acuity – perhaps there is some substance to those claims and this is the reason?
Related articles
- How To Get A Great Night’s Sleep: Could Less Mean More? (medicalnewstoday.com)
- Trouble Sleeping? Ask Yourself Why (huffingtonpost.com)
- Sleepless, but not in Seattle (makinthebacon1.wordpress.com)
- How to Sleep Right, Tonight (fatdadfitdad.wordpress.com)
- Too Many Energy Drinks Can Put You to Sleep (chasm63.wordpress.com)
- Is Lack of Sleep Causing Your Brain to Shrivel? (psychologytoday.com)
- Finding the Link Between Sleep and Senior Moments (healthland.time.com)
- Into the impossible with a father of string theory (newscientist.com)
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