Question: If sleep helps you prepare your memories than why is it harder for old people to prepare memories?

Alex Reid answered on 15 Nov 2018:

Hi Rice and Curry, another great question. Aging unfortunately comes with a natural degree of deterioration of our bodies, and this can also effect your brain. Structures that are really important for memory such as the hippocampus (responsible for short term memory) and neocortex (longer term memory) can become less efficient. As such older people may not be as good at learning new things or storing them as younger adults. Many old people will happily admit their memories are not that great, and it is a normal part of aging (not to be confused with dementia). As a sleep researcher I should also add that the amount of sleep people need declines with age. You will probably need between 9-11 hours a night, your parents around 6-10, and older adults (65+) will need even less. Older people’s sleep is also more fragmented, shallow and prone to disruption. As sleep helps memory processing this may also partly explain why older people have a harder time remembering things.