It would be easy to assume that chronic insomnia throws an older adult’s entire schedule off course: irregular meals, erratic bedtimes, a life that falls apart because sleep already has. New research complicates that picture entirely. Adults with insomnia kept just as steady a daily routine as good sleepers did. What was consistently linked to pain, body mass index, and depressive symptoms across both groups was the regularity of a person’s daily schedule.
A team of researchers from the University of Missouri, Washington State University, Trinity College, the University of Macau, and the University of Pittsburgh set out to examine how consistent daily schedules relate to physical and mental health in older adults. Their findings, published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, suggest the timing of daily life may be another important piece of older adults’ health, even when insomnia is present.
Researchers call this consistency behavioral-social rhythms: the regularity of daily activities that act like internal clock cues, known scientifically as zeitgebers, helping the body’s circadian system stay in sync with the 24-hour day
