The reasons why the elderly love to sleep are related to physiological factors and disease factors. Physiological factors are sleep deprivation; disease factors include Alzheimer’s disease, drug effects, depression and so on.
1. Physiological factors: If the elderly patients fall asleep too late at night and do not have enough sleep, the brain will not get enough rest during the day, which can be manifested as sleepiness.
2. Disease factors
(1) Alzheimer’s disease: this disease is a degenerative disease, which is common in the elderly patients, and after the onset of the disease, there may be intellectual decline, personality changes, and mental symptoms. Elderly people can be characterized as sleepy, accompanied by memory loss, irritability and so on. After clear diagnosis, oral drugs such as olaxetan and fenelaxetan can be taken to nourish the nerves; donepezil and carboplatin can be used to improve the cognition and so on.
(2) Drug effects: If the patient has taken medium and long acting sedative hypnotic drugs, due to the side effects produced by the drugs, it can be manifested as sleepiness.
(3) Depression: the onset of the disease can be characterized by daytime sleepiness and difficulty in falling asleep at night, accompanied by expression indifference. It is recommended that antidepressant treatment should be given according to the doctor’s prescription, and the representative drugs include sertraline, paroxetine, and so on.
Elderly people who love to sleep can go to the hospital for treatment after the cause of the disease has been clarified. All drugs should be used under the guidance of a doctor.