Today marks World Sleep Day

The World Sleep Day is an annual event organized by the World Sleep Day Committee of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) since 2008. It is aimed to celebrate the benefits of good and healthy sleep and to draw society attention to the burden of sleep problems and their medicine, education and social aspects; to promote sleep disorders prevention and management.

Through the World Sleep Day the WASM tries to raise awareness of sleep disorders and their better understanding and preventability, and to reduce the burden of sleep problems on society that constitute a global epidemic and threaten health and quality of life for as much as 45% of the world's population.

On Friday, March 15, 2013, World Sleep Day will be celebrated all over the globe. According to recent research, approximately 50 percent of older adults report difficulty sleeping. But sleep problems in older adults are less a result of aging itself and more related to other conditions that may accompany aging.

Respiratory disorders, changes in circadian sleep cycles, medical and psychiatric illnesses, and increased medicine use all can contribute to poor quality sleep in this growing population.

Poor sleep doesn’t only mean that half of all older adults are a little more tired during the day, though. There are more serious consequences related to overall health and wellbeing. Sleep disturbances have been shown to contribute to decreased quality of life, more symptoms of depression and anxiety, slower reaction times, memory problems, issues with balance and vision increasing risk of falls, and even death.