YOU MIGHT STRIVE to go to bed by 9 p.m., hoping to get a good night’s sleep. But if you lie awake for hours before drifting off, your sleep efficiency might be lacking, and it's probably interfering with your ability to get enough rest. Sleep efficiency refers to the amount of time you spend actually asleep versus the time you spend in bed intending to sleep, says Zachary Strumpf, MD, pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine physician at University Hospitals.
One of the biggest factors affecting sleep efficiency is age. Some research points to guys being hit hardest when they reach the fourth decade of life. SLEEP EFFICIENCY STAYS relatively unchanged from childhood to adolescence.
Then it starts to decline in adulthood, says Dr. Research varies on when sleep efficiency takes a dive, but changes seem to occur in middle age (40 to 64). People’s sleep efficiency score tend to decrease from 89 to 79 percent.
Sleep efficiency below 80 percent may increase a person’s mortality risk. One study found an 18.6 percent decline in sleep efficiency between ages 40 and 100. Men specifically ages 65 to 96 were more likely to have an 80 percent or lower sleep efficiency when they were single or had a painful illness.
In that study, pain, sleep medication use, and bad dreams were the main culprits for poor sleep efficiency. Yes, sleep medication lowered people’s sleep efficiency score. Depending on the person, Dr.
Strumpf says “certain medications can increase or decrease a person’s sleep efficiency or alter the proportion of time spent in REM sleep.” SLEEP EFFICIENCY IS the percentage of the time you spend asleep relative to the time you dedicate to sleep, says Nishay Chitkara, MD, director of sleep medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. Sleep efficiency scores are expressed as a percentage. To calculate it, divide the total minutes you’re asleep by the total minutes spent in bed trying to go to sleep.
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