Some older adults struggle with dream sleep, particularly the stage called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, where most vivid dreaming happens. This difficulty arises due to several changes in the brain and body that come with aging.
As people get older, their brains produce less melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate sleep cycles. The brain’s internal clock, which signals when to sleep and wake, also becomes less precise. These changes can reduce the amount of REM sleep and make sleep more fragmented, meaning older adults wake up more often during the night. Because REM sleep is when dreaming is most intense, less REM sleep means fewer or less vivid dreams.
Certain health conditions common in older adults can further disrupt REM sleep. For example, neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia are linked to REM sleep behavior disorder, where the normal paralysis during REM sleep is lost, causing people to physically act out their dreams. This disorder is more common in men over 50 and often appears years before other neurological symptoms. Medications, including some antidepressants, can also interfere with REM sleep.
Additionally, chronic illnesses such as arthritis, diabetes, heart failure, or lung diseases can cause discomfort, pain, or breathing difficulties that interrupt sleep and reduce REM sleep quality. Stress and nightmares, which trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response and release stress hormones, can also impair sleep and accelerate aging at the cellular level, further complicating healthy dream sleep.
In some cases, older adults may experience lucid dreaming more frequently due to sleep disruptions. While lucid dreaming itself is not harmful, attempts to induce it by interrupting sleep can lead to sleep deprivation, worsening overall sleep quality.
Overall, the struggle with dream sleep in older adults is a complex mix of natural aging processes, health conditions, medication effects, and stress-related factors that together reduce the amount and quality of REM sleep, making dreaming less frequent or more disturbed.
