Among women in their eighties and nineties, the quiet erosion of nighttime sleep and the creeping weight of daytime drowsiness have emerged as measurable harbingers of mortality — not merely symptoms of illness already present, but signals in their own right. A five-year study tracking 704 women through wrist-worn sensors found that those whose sleep patterns deteriorated faced roughly twice the risk of death compared to those whose rest remained stable. In the long arc of human aging, this research suggests that the body's most ancient rhythm — the cycle of waking and rest — may be among the
Sleep disruptions in oldest women linked to doubled mortality risk
During median follow-up of 2.1 years, 90 deaths occurred among study participants, with sleep pattern changes associated with increased mortality risk.