The poster child of aging seems to be a wrinkly-faced, forgetful, grumpy old man. But science is painting another, more in-depth picture of aging Americans. The elderly tend to become more happy, liberal and in many cases remain pretty darn sharp. Here are 7 ways we change as we get older.
As wrinkles set in, so do a person's rigid beliefs, many people have long assumed. Not true, according to a survey of more than 46,000 Americans between 1972 and 2004. While the study didn't follow individuals as they aged, the results represent snapshots of the changing attitudes of respondents in different age groups. Over time, adults' attitudes got more liberal regarding politics, economics, race, gender, religion and sexuality issues. While the results don't mean your grandma is sure to revert to hippie-dom, on average older adults will head in that direction.
In the study, researchers looked at stem cells that give rise to bone marrow that had been isolated from young and old mice. The cells were transplanted into mice whose bone marrow cells had been destroyed.
In a study of 110 healthy adults who were allowed eight hours of bed time, the oldest group (ages 66 to 83) snoozed about 20 minutes less than the middle-agers (ages 40 to 55), who in turn slept about 23 minutes less than the youngest group (ages 20 to 30). The simplest explanation for the fewer shut-eye minutes: Older adults need less sleep.
If you have trouble tuning out extraneous information, from background chatter to flashing billboards, age might not be your friend. As a person gets older, their ability to ignore distractions gets worse, according to Karen Campbell, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Toronto. But Campbell and her colleagues found a silver lining that might focus you: Seniors might have the unique ability to "hyper-bind" the irrelevant information, tying it to other information appearing at the same time. The ability could ultimately boost memory.
Laughing is good for you, science has shown. That's good news for older adults who still appreciate humor - providing they understand it, according to a Canadian study published in a 2003 issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
"The good news is that aging does not affect emotional responses to humor - we'll still enjoy a good laugh when we get the joke," Prathiba Shammi, a psychologist with Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care, said in a statement. "This preserved affective responsiveness is important because it is integral to social interaction and it has long been postulated that humor may enhance quality of life, assist in stress management, and help us cope with the stresses of aging."
The downside of the study: Older adults had more trouble than spring chickens comprehending humor. They were less able to choose appropriate punch lines for jokes or to select the correct funny cartoon from an array of cartoons. Another research team came to the same conclusions in 2007, that older adults have a harder time "getting a joke" than younger individuals.
For instance, a study published in 2008 by Yang Yang, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, suggests the increase in lifespan that’s occurred since the 1970s has been linked with an increase in years of happiness. At the same time, however, health and income – important factors when it comes to happiness – decline with age. Some researchers have pointed out that when you take these two factors into account, the elderly are less happy than their younger counterparts.
Even so, whether well-being stays strong in old age could come down to a person's attitude. Research has shown older adults remember the past through a rose-colored lens; they are more optimistic than younger individuals; and the sick and disabled are just as happy as the rest of us.
The stereotypical picture of grumpy old men might not hold weight in science. Age could bring happiness for many people, though whether or not that conclusion is true and the reasons for cheerfulness in old age are debatable.
For instance, a study published in 2008 by Yang Yang, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, suggests the increase in lifespan that’s occurred since the 1970s has been linked with an increase in years of happiness. At the same time, however, health and income – important factors when it comes to happiness – decline with age. Some researchers have pointed out that when you take these two factors into account, the elderly are less happy than their younger counterparts.
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