You don’t sleep as well 

as you get older  

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We are more likely to start experiencing more restless

 nights as we get older

And your GP probably can’t help

OAPs sleep much more lightly for a good reason – to keep their 
family safe, scientists claim.

Early waking is an ancient throwback to when we lived in caves and
 needed to keep an eye out for predators.

During the hours when younger relatives sleep, grandparents are
more likely to be stirring.

Experts say the evolutionary quirk kept families safe and explains
why pensioners are more likely to be up at the crack of dawn.

They said tired OAPs should simply head to bed earlier, rather than
complain to their GPs.

Researcher Dr David Samson, from Duke University in North
Carolina, said: “The idea that there’s a benefit to living with
grandparents has been around for a while, but this study
 extends that idea to vigilance during night-time sleep.”

To prove their theory - called the “poorly sleeping grandparent hypothesis”
– they studied the Hadza people, a traditional hunter-gatherer
community in Tanzania.

They typically live in groups of 20 to 30,  and live as humans did
 for hundreds of thousands of years before the advent of farming.

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A study has found that grandparents are more vigilant and

alert during night-time sleep

During the day, men and women go their separate ways to
 hunt or forage.

At night, young and old alike sleep together out in the open
 or in huts made of woven grass and branches.

But not everyone slept at the same time, the researchers found.

Older group members in their 50s and 60s went to bed
sooner and woke up earlier than those in their 20s and 30s.

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Older people in their 50s and 60s went to bed sooner and 

woke up earlier than those in their 20s and 30s, a study found

Scientists found that as a result, it was rare for the whole group to
 be sleeping at the same time.

On average, more than a third of the group was alert or snoozing lightly,
 at any given time.

Researchers said it could be one reason why people tend to
experience more restless nights as they get older.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings
of the Royal Society.

Fellow researcher Professor Charlie Nunn, an expert in evolutionary

 anthropology at Duke University, said: “Any time you have a 

mixed-age group population, some go to bed early, some later.

“If you’re older you’re more of a morning lark. If you’re younger 

you’re more of a night owl.

“A lot of older people go to doctors complaining that they

 wake up early and can’t get back to sleep.

“But maybe there’s nothing wrong with them. Maybe some 

of the medical issues we have today could be explained not as disorders, 

but as a relic of an evolutionary past in which they were beneficial.”