Don’t just sit there! It could be harmful later in life: People over age 60 may have an extra reason to get moving. A new study suggests that sitting too much can significantly increase the risk of disability for older adults, regardless of how much they exercise in their active hours. The study, which included more than 2,200 people, found that people over 60 “spend an average of two-thirds of their waking time being sedentary – roughly nine hours a day.” For every additional hour the subjects spent sitting, “their risk of being disabled for activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing and walking” later in life increased by 50%. 

Poor sleep linked to widespread pain: A new British study of adults over the age of 50 found that “regularly feeling tired and worn out after a night’s sleep was the strongest predictor of also developing widespread pain.” Widespread pain affects multiple sites in the body and is the “main feature of fibromyalgia, a condition affecting 15 percent of women and 10 percent of men over the age of 50.” In the study, people who regularly had “non-restorative” sleep were nearly twice as likely to develop widespread pain as people with no sleep problems. While the association does not “prove that unrestful sleep is either a cause or effect of widespread pain,” it does offer a potential treatment target.