Sleep aid won’t help the elderly

A POPULAR treatment for Britain’s most common sleep disorder does nothing to help older patients, a study has found.

Patients aged over 80 with sleep apnoea, which causes people to stop breathing repeatedly during the night, saw no improvement after undergoing continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), in which air is delivered through a mask to keep the airway open.

Researchers at the University of Missouri in the US found that when given to patients aged over 80, CPAP did not improve sleepiness, depression or high blood pressure, which are all brought on by sleep apnoea.

They said this was probably because older adults are more likely to suffer from a combination of disorders affecting their sleep which CPAP cannot address.