It would not be a surprise if the only thing most people knew about getting older is that along with old age, comes a set of setbacks concerning your health and your mental state as well. We can’t argue the fact that aging takes its toll on the body, but the grumpiness is more of a myth than a fact.
With the advances in medicine and greater awareness in taking care of our health, we now know more about aging.
Here are some interesting facts about getting older that maybe even old people might not know about.
Morning person
You might find yourself changing from a night owl to an early bird. It’s normal that our sleep patterns change as we approach our 60s. We can sleep earlier, meaning we’ll get up earlier. Despite that, as you get older you’ll find that you might wake up more during the night for one or two bathroom visits. However, you’ll still be able to get a good night’s sleep on most nights.
Spice it up
As you age, your use of medications can increase. You can also become more prone to dental issues, such as gum disease if you don’t visit the dentist regularly. Increased use of medication and dental health problems can affect our taste buds. You might notice the food you cook tastes bland, which could make you eat less, thus affecting your overall health. It’s alright to add more flavor to your food, but you have to be careful not to go overboard with things such as sugar and salt. Instead of regular oil in your salad, for instance, try olive oil. Add more spices to taste, but limit spicy foods.
Say good-bye to migraines
As you age, you can expect migraines to decrease. It’s reported that only 10% of women and 5% of men over 70 still suffer from migraines. This is great news, as migraines may cause visual or sensory disturbances.
After using your eyes for an extended amount of time, such as in reading, using the computer, or sewing, you can suffer from eye strain which may cause headaches. Needless to say, while older adults do use many of today’s devices and electronic gadgets, these devices don’t help anyone’s vision, young or old. Radiation from screens can lead to blurred vision and eye strain.
Some electronics don’t require you to squint or suffer from blurry vision. You can find devices like hand watches that are easy to read, for instance. You can buy devices and gadgets for an elderly loved one, making their life simpler because these gadgets are designed with older people in mind. Easy to read watches will have a clear, bold print upon a large face, for instance. There are also electronic devices made exclusively for reading e-books, and they come with big fonts to allow the reader not to strain their eyes.
You become more tolerant
Contrary to what so many people believe about old people being grumpy, people actually become more tolerant as they age. They are less likely to get angry than their younger counterparts. There have been studies that prove this, however the reason behind it is still unknown. Anyway, no one is complaining!
Crystallized intelligence
You didn’t gather all your information and knowledge for nothing. These are two different kinds of intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is all the facts, skills and knowledge you’ve accumulated over the years, and putting them to use to solve problems or to make daily decisions. Fluid intelligence is your ability to think flexibly and abstractly to solve problems or reason. As we age into our late adulthood, our fluid intelligence starts to decline, but our crystallized intelligence increases. The peak of crystallized intelligence tends to be in our 60s and 70s.
Retirement is further away
Although it would seem contradictory, since we’re all expected to live longer, many people try to postpone retiring as much as possible. Trying to live 20 years post-retirement isn’t easy on your finances. One of the things that the elderly worry about is outliving their savings. It’s getting more common to find people working past their retirement age. Even if it’s done purely for financial reasons, it’s always recommended to keep your mental and physical states active throughout your lifetime.
Probably what most people don’t know is that we get happier as we age. Though we can lose people close to us, and lose other things that we value as we age, we gain what everyone is looking for; happiness. This might be due to a mixture of external reasons, like having more money, and internal reasons, like changed behavior.