As long as one keeps oneself engaged, problems of insomnia , depression et al do not arise,especially for the elderly.
Regular habits and involvement, mainly emotionally with family has a soothing effect.
As for as sleep is concerned the system shall take rest as much as it needs and there is no need to consult physicians or take tablets.
In traditional societies in India( there are still some pockets left) , elderly, excepting in rich and upper middle class homes ,do not sleep in a separate bed room, in fact in most homes of joint family, there is no such thing as a separate bed room,Family members keep on talking in a casual manner till they feel sleepy and go to sleep.Those in need of privacy adjourn to a separate room and after a while return to the common room.Thus people of a family remain connected throughout the day remain connected and it provides them a feeling of emotional security.
Life long habit of prayers and active involvement in the running of the house hold keeps them healthy,no insomnia, no depression.
Story:
My mother-in-law, Dorothy, is showing me the red spiral notebook that’s almost as precious to her as my husband’s baby pictures. Inside, in Dorothy’s distinctive script, is a list of every book she has read since 2007. For some people waking up in the middle of the night is a terrible curse; unable to drift back to sleep, they’re confronted with a big gaping hole that represents hours of lost time. For my mother-in-law, that time is a gift. At 87, she is acquiring the education she never had by working her way through the canon of great literature. She has now read close to 100 books, including every single novel by Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Henry James and Thomas Mann.
My mother-in-law discusses her newfound passion with the enthusiasm of a young girl, although she can also be a very tough critic, writing “VG” for “very good” in the margins next to her favorites. Thus far, only a handful of books have received the top prize. Though she “loves” Mr. Darcy, especially after seeing the Masterpiece Theater version with the dashing Colin Firth, she didn’t award Jane Austen a single “VG.” “I can’t explain it,” she says. “I like her a lot and I wish she’d written more – was she sickly? I can’t remember – but she just doesn’t hold a candle to Thomas Mann (three ‘VG’s’). Everybody should read ‘Buddenbrooks.’ Where were those books when I was growing up?”
Born in Ridgefield, Conn., Dorothy was the youngest daughter of an Italian gardener who taught himself English by reading The New York Times. Eager to come to Manhattan, she became a nurse, married a dentist and spent the next several decades keeping house and raising a family. In her later years, she put her nursing skills to good use taking care of my father-in-law, who had lung cancer, heart disease and kidney failure. There were multiple trips to the emergency room in the middle of the night and then a prolonged hospital stay.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/theres-more-than-enough-hours-in-every-day/?hp#preview
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