Sleep and Aging: Endocrine and Epigenetic Aspects

Abstract

Along with many physiological changes during normal aging, sleep also changes. Age-related changes in sleep include: a decrease in the duration of night sleep, an increase in the frequency of falling asleep during the day, an increase in the number of night awakenings and time spent without sleep during the night, a decrease in the phase of slow sleep, etc. Most of these changes occur between the young and the middle and remain unchanged in the elderly. In addition, the circadian system and homeostatic sleep mechanisms become less stable with aging. The level and nature of the secretion of hormones acting on sleep change during normal aging, which affects the processes of sleep and wakefulness. Sleep indicators are interrelated and/or dependent on lifestyle, polymorbidity (somatic, psychological), polypharmacy, epigenetic (social, economic, environmental, etc.) factors. Increased average human life expectancy and neuroendocrine changes in physiological and pathological aging, on the one hand, epigenetic factors and electromagnetic information load/overload, on the other hand, made a significant contribution to the circadian nature of human brain neural network interaction with artificial intelligence.