Older adults found to fare better under sleep deprivation than younger adults

In a recent sleep study testing alertness and performance in sleep-deprived adults, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) determined that healthy older adults handle sleep deprivation better than younger adults. The findings appeared online on May 3, in an advance online edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. After an extended period of wakefulness, older participants were less impaired by sleep deprivation, showed faster reaction times and fewer performance lapses, paid better attention, and had less frequent unintentional sleep episodes than their younger counterparts.  read more

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