 |
 |
hi all after doing the Travels With Parkinson's talk-radio show on hormones from my bed, this one made me laugh! janet (you are next, karen!) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Half of Canadians deprived of sleep Parents, shift workers living at risk: expert Tuesday 13 March 2001 Almost half of all Canadians are walking around sleep-deprived, and shift workers and parents are most likely to cut down on sleep when pressed for time, a Statistics Canada study released yesterday reveals. The Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, conducted in 1998, found that 47 per cent of Canadians try to pack more activities into their days by spending less time sleeping. The survey found that the average Canadian gets about 8.1 hours of sleep a night -- a healthy amount of shut-eye, up from an average of 8.0 hours in 1992. But parents get less than the recommended eight hours of uninterrupted sleep each night: The average father sleeps 7.7 hours a night, while mothers average 7.9 hours a night. Shift workers are worse off, with 25 per cent of night-shift workers sleeping less than 6.5 hours a day. According to a University of Toronto sleep expert, that choice can have serious health consequences -- from traffic accidents caused by fatigue to high blood pressure. "If your body is designed to have an eight-hour sleep period and if you deviate significantly from that, it creates an internal stress. You might not be outwardly stressed, but your body is running on a different engine than it's best designed for," said Richard Horner, assistant professor in the University of Toronto department of medicine. "There is statistical evidence that it can promote disorders of general health." The study also found a significant number of people are not sleeping well: about 25 per cent of adults regularly had problems going to sleep or staying asleep, compared with 20 per cent in 1992. Dr. Horner views that phenomenon with concern. People who have trouble breathing at night suffer from lack of oxygen, and often wake up a hundred times during the night, he said. Waking up constantly deprives the heart of rest, which can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. The Statistics Canada findings echo those of previous North American studies. One recent U.S. study suggested two-thirds of American adults experience a sleep problem a few nights per week while 17 per cent of drivers report dozing off behind the wheel at least once a year. The 2000 edition of Harvard Medical School's Family Health Guide reported that people who regularly sleep fewer than four hours a night do not live as long as people who sleep between four and nine hours per night. Another study suggests even moderate sleep deprivation -- such as being awake more than 18 hours a day -- results in reaction times slower than those of people who are legally impaired from alcohol. And shift work has long been known to disrupt sleep patterns, because humans are wired to be awake during the day and asleep at night. Dr. Horner says a lifetime spent working night shifts can reduce life expectancy by as much as five years. "It's worse than being jetlagged, because you're doing it so often," says Wendy Pearson, a registered nurse at the Ottawa Hospital's Civic site, of her experience working shifts. "You're constantly flipping back and forth to get back on to everyone else's schedule." She said that while most young nurses adjust well to rotating shift schedules, older nurses tend to get only four or five hours of sleep a day. "Once you get home (from a night shift), nurses that have children have to get the kids to school. Then when you sleep in the day, you've got noise, you've got the phone going off. I know some nurses that put tinfoil on their windows to keep all the light out, because you're so messed up." While the study suggests most Canadians get at least eight hours of sleep a night, Dr. Horner says he's skeptical about those figures. He says eight hours might reflect the time people spend in bed, but not the time they spend sleeping, since many people read or watch television in bed before going to sleep. He says the value of a good night's sleep should not be underrated. A 1999 study by a team of University of Chicago researchers suggests it's never too late to catch up on lost sleep. While the researchers argued that lack of sleep can upset the body's metabolism -- and possibly hasten the onset of age-related illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and memory loss -- they also found that sleep debt can also be made up by spending longer than the normal eight hours in bed. Kate Jaimet, with files from Bev Wake The Ottawa Citizen Copyright 2001 CanWest Interactive, a CanWest company. All rights reserved http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/010313/5089811.html . ------------------------------------------------------------------- janet paterson, an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky PD: 53/41/37 CD: 53/44/43 TEL: 613 256 8340 EMAIL: [log in to unmask] "A New Voice" home page: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ . "New Voice News" latest posts: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nvnNET/ .