“Can anesthesia in elderly patients cause excessive sleep?”

Hello. Not all patients react the same to anesthesia. Sometimes they feel drowsy or sleepy for hours. But sometimes they wake up very quick!!

Elderly patients may have slower awakening after general anesthesia, but postoperative sleepiness depends more on the dose of narcotics used to control pain.

Yes, as can pain meds, the stress of surgery, shallow breathing, hospitalization, etc.

I am not sure what you mean by excessive sleep. Anesthetics do affect the elderly, especially if the elderly person already has a history of dementia, stroke, or any other neuro-degenerative disease like Parkinson’s. Also the medications elderly folks take routinely will magnify the effects of sedating anesthetics.

Having a procedure requiring anesthesia can certainly lead to more sleeping, but there are a lot of factors involved. Presumably, the patient had surgery which has its effects, fasted before surgery which has its effects, was somewhat dehydrated which has its effects, and took pain medicine after which has its effects. In addition, the patient may have not slept well the night before because of pre-procedure anxiety. There are many factors, but people tend to focus on “anesthesia” as the cause of many things. It it is just one of many causes. Also, remember that most of the time, the procedure was only possible because the patient was anesthetized.

I hope that helps!

Jeffrey C. Astbury, MD, FACC, FASE, FASA, CATE, MSBE, MSEE