Sleep and Human Aging

Guest: Joe Winer, University of California, Berkeley, Cognitive Neuroscience Can’t sleep? You’re far from alone. More than 8 million American adults rely on prescription sleep aids to catch their Z’s, and, alarmingly, that reliance only increases with age. Trouble sleeping is a common consequence of getting older, but is that because older people just need less sleep? Or does something go haywire in the body’s ability to sleep as we age – and then lack of sleep makes other aspects, such as memory loss, even worse?