Sleep Deprivation May Exacerbate Frailty's Effects on Mental Health in Older Adults

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests sleep deprivation may worsen frailty's impact on depressive symptoms among older adults, reports EurekAlert . Among 5,026 community-dwelling older adults in China, participants who were frail at the study's outset were more likely to later develop depressive symptoms. Meanwhile, those who suffered worsening frailty tended to become more depressed, with these effects exacerbated by short sleep. The implication is that interventions that target sleep disturbances — like exercise and mindfulness-based stress reduction — might help mitigate the negative effects of frailty on mental health. "We hope our research findings raise people's awareness of the combined effect of frailty and sleep on older adults' mental health, and provide implications for interventions to improve sleep quality for prefrail and frail older adults," said Peking University's Xinyi Zhao.