Changes In Self-Reported Sleep Duration With Age - A 36-Year Longitudinal Study of Finnish Adults

Abstract

Background: Sleep deprivation is often claimed to be increasingly common, but most studies show small changes in sleep duration over the last decades. Our aim was to analyze long-term patterns in self-reported sleep durationin a population-based cohort.Methods: Members ofthe Older Finnish Twin Cohort have responded to questionnaires in 1975 (N = 30,915 individuals,response rate 89%, mean age 36 years), 1981 (24,506, 84%, 41 years), 1990 (12,502,77%, 44 years), and 2011 (8510, 72%, 60 years).Weibull regression models were used to model the effects of follow-up time and age simultaneously.Results: Sleep duration has decreased in all adult age groups and in both genders.The mean duration was in men 7.57 hours in 1975 and 7.39 in 2011, and in women 7.69 and 7.37, respectively. The decrease was about 0.5minutes in men and 0.9in women per year of follow-up. In the age-group 18-34 years, mean sleep length was 7.69 hours in 1975 and 7.53 in 1990. Among 35-54-year-old it was 7.57 hours in 1975 and 7.34 in 2011, and in the age group of 55+ year olds7.52 and 7.38, correspondingly. The change was largest in middle-aged group: about 23 minutes or about 0.6 minutes per year of follow-up.Conclusions: There has been a slight decrease in mean sleep duration during the 36-year follow-up.Although the sleep duration was longer in 1970s and 1980s, the probablemain cause for the change in this study populationis the effect of aging.

The multidimensionality of sleep in population‐based samples: a narrative review

“…In adults, self‐reported sleep duration shortens with age, while current recommendations for optimal sleep duration remain largely unaltered from the age of 18 years onwards (Hirshkowitz et al, 2015; Hublin et al, 2020; Kocevska et al, 2021; Suh et al, 2020; Tonetti et al, 2008). The prevalence of self‐reported short sleepers (<6 h) has been estimated to increase from 6.8% in young (18–34 years) and middle‐aged adults (35–54 years) up to 25% in elderly persons (>55 years) in the European population and up to 30% in the United States and Japanese elderly population (Kocevska et al, 2021; Kronholm et al, 2006).…”