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The Administration on Aging has a webpage about how getting enough sleep is important for good health. Older adults need 7-9 hours of sleep, which is the same amount which younger adults require. As people age, they have more trouble falling asleep and sleep less deeply. It is very important to get enough sleep, because insufficient sleep can increase the chance of accidents and falls. Here are some suggestions from the Administration on Aging about how to get a good night's sleep:
- Go to sleep and get up at the same time each day, even on weekends.
- Develop a bedtime routine. About 30–45 minutes before bedtime each
night, do the same things so your body will know that it’s time to
sleep.
- Avoid caffeine late in the day.
You can find more information about sleep from the National Institutes of Health Senior Health website.
There are thousands of websites that provide health information online. A lot of these sites are just trying to sell health products to you and they may not provide correct information. You can start to evaluate a website by looking at who sponsors it. If the web site is a ".gov" (government website) or a ".edu" (college or university web site), the information will be more reliable and unbiased than a ".com" (commercial web site). You can find out more information to help you evaluate health websites on the National Institute on Aging website: "Online Health Information: Can You Trust It?".
Here are some excellent health websites:
- NIH Senior Health - good basic information on many health topics; very user-friendly; also includes videos on topics such as Macular Degeneration.
- MedlinePlus Senior's Health (from the U.S. National Library of Medicine) - good directory of Senior health resources.
- MedlinePlus - search by health topic or search drugs and supplements- brings together information from many sources – such as the Mayo Clinic, the CDC, and the American Medical Association.
- NIDCD - information about dealing with deafness.
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute- Managing Heart Disease
Looking for a health provider? Here is a list of directories:
- Healthfinder - find a dentist, a doctor, hospital, hospice care, etc.
- Florida Health Finder - find and compare hospitals, prescription drug prices, nursing homes, etc.
Want to compare Medicare providers? Medicare.gov has the following tools:
The National Institute of Health provides an excellent health resource for Older Adults called NIHSeniorHealth. This website provides easy to understand health and aging information. It is very accessible because it offers adjustable text size, text color, and the ability to have the text read aloud. This website is a good place to start to find health information about a particular condition, such as diabetes or kidney disease. The latest addition to the website is a section about Anxiety Disorders, which is located here. Anxiety disorders "... are characterized by persistent, excessive and disabling fear and worry and get progressively worse if left untreated. It is estimated that anxiety disorders affect between 3 and 14 percent of older adults in a given year" (National Institute on Aging press release). More in-depth information about anxiety disorders can be found on the following web pages:
