Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 8:9:234.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00234. eCollection 2018.

Aging and the Change in Fatigue and Sleep - A Longitudinal Study Across 8 Years in Three Age Groups

Torbjörn Åkerstedt  1   2 , Andrea Discacciati  3 , Anna Miley-Åkerstedt  4 , Hugo Westerlund  2
Affiliations

Aging and the Change in Fatigue and Sleep - A Longitudinal Study Across 8 Years in Three Age Groups

Torbjörn Åkerstedt et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Fatigue is prevalent in the population and usually linked to sleep problems, and both are related to age. However, previous studies have been cross-sectional. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the trajectories of sleep and fatigue across 8 years of aging in a large group (N > 8.000) of individuals. A second purpose was to investigate whether fatigue trajectories would differ between age groups, and whether different trajectories of fatigue would be reflected in a corresponding difference in trajectories for sleep variables. Results from mixed model analyses showed that fatigue decreased across 8 years in all age groups, while sleep problems increased, non-restorative sleep decreased, weekend sleep duration decreased, and weekday sleep duration showed different patterns depending on age. Furthermore, the larger the decrease in fatigue, the larger was the increase in sleep duration across years, the lower was the increase of sleep problems, and the larger was the decrease of non-restorative sleep. The results suggest that aging has positive effects on fatigue and sleep and that these changes are linked.

Keywords: aging; longitudinal; restorative sleep; sleep duration; sleep quality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
(A–E) Trajectories across 8 years for the main variables in three age groups. 95% Confidence interval for the oldest group. Mixed model regression. Note difference in scale for sleep duration variables.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Åkerstedt T., Axelsson J., Lekander M., Orsini N., Kecklund G. (2014). Do sleep, stress, and illness explain daily variations in fatigue? A prospective study. J. Psychosom. Res. 76 280–285. 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2014.01.005 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Åkerstedt T., Ingre M., Broman J. E., Kecklund G. (2008). Disturbed sleep in shift workers, day workers, and insomniacs. Chronobiol. Int. 25 333–348. 10.1080/07420520802113922 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Akerstedt T., Kecklund G., Alfredsson L., Selen J. (2007). Predicting long-term sickness absence from sleep and fatigue. J. Sleep Res. 16 341–345. 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2007.00609.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Åkerstedt T., Knutsson A., Westerholm P., Theorell T., Alfredsson L., Kecklund G. (2002). Sleep disturbances, work stress and work hours. A cross-sectional study. J. Psychosom. Res. 53 741–748. 10.1016/S0022-3999(02)00333-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Åkerstedt T., Nordin M., Alfredsson L., Westerholm P., Kecklund G. (2012). Predicting changes in sleep complaints from baseline values and changes in work demands, work control, and work preoccupation–the WOLF-project. Sleep Med. 13 73–80. 10.1016/j.sleep.2011.04.015 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources