Why do we sleep less well as we get older?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific concepts

A restless night for Groucho Marx in Duck Soup.
A restless night for Groucho Marx in Duck Soup. Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

As we get older we seem to sleep less well, often waking in the middle of the night. Why?

Anthony Davies, Burton upon Trent

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