 |
 |
[The United States of ] America needs more sleep, study says (March 27, 1998 01:13 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Like hypnosis subjects in a campy old movie, Americans are getting sleepy -- very, very sleepy. Meanwhile, they blithely work and drive as if they were well-refreshed. The consequences are predictable. So say the savants at the National Sleep Foundation, which has released a study revealing that 64 percent of people in the U.S. sleep less than the recommended eight hours a night, while 32 percent log fewer than six hours. And how do they feel when awake? Tired, according to the report, based on a nationwide survey of sleeping habits. More than 33 percent said they were drowsy during the day. Nearly 33 percent said it interfered with their on-the-job performance (a figure that rose to more than 50 percent for night-shift workers). Of special concern, said experts at the foundation in Washington, D.C., is that people drive when deprived of sleep. Some 100,000 crashes, involving 1,500 deaths and 71,000 injuries, are caused by drivers who drift off, according to an estimate by the National Transportation Safety Board. This is not news to the pros who pilot big rigs on U.S. highways, said Deborah Whistler, editor of Heavy Duty Trucking Magazine, published in Irvine, Calif. "(Sleep deprivation) is a huge issue in the trucking industry," said Whistler. Drivers are particularly prone to "microsleep, where they just kind of go in and out of sleep (while driving)." She said one transportation company is experimenting with a computerized gadget that alerts drivers -- as well as their home office -- whenever they start to sleep at the wheel. "I would hazard a guess that within a couple of years every trucker in America is going to have one of these things, if they work," Whistler said. Lack of sleep also can cause less obvious health hazards, said Clete Kushida, director of the Stanford University Center for Human Sleep Research. "There's evidence that if there's sleep deprivation and a person has a sleep- related breathing disorder, it can make the breathing disorder worse," said Kushida. He said the breathing disorder, known as sleep apnea, afflicts 24 percent of men and 9 percent of women between ages 30 and 60. Professional competence is also a victim of short sleep hours, Kushida added. "Your work performance deteriorates significantly," he said. "You become irritable. You have short-term memory problems and concentration difficulties." Just one night of sleep deprivation can bring on these symptoms, Kushida said. For those who routinely cheat themselves of vital slumber, "the sleep debt accumulates over time ... eventually the person just crashes." The foundation survey -- based on interviews with more than 1,000 people -- blamed two tools of technological society -- TV and the Internet -- on some of America's collective sleep debt. "51 percent of men and 42 percent of women would go to sleep earlier if they didn't have a TV or access to the Internet," said the foundation statement. What's more, getting enough sleep is not a status symbol in competitive society, said foundation researchers. Noting that the sleepiest Americans are in their late teens and 20s, Thomas Roth, head of sleep research at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a foundation adviser, said: "18- to 25-year-olds think they can get by with 4 to 5 hours of sleep because Margaret Thatcher can and they are twice the man she is." How can we tell when we've have had enough sleep? That's easy, said Kushida. You've had enough sleep when you're no longer sleepy. The survey was done to launch National Sleep Awareness Week, March 30-April 5, which includes National Sleep Day on April 2. The Web site of The National Sleep Foundation: http://www.sleepfoundation.org/ By MICHAEL DOUGAN, San Francisco Examiner Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service Copyright 1998 Nando.net Copyright 1998 Scripps Howard janet paterson 51-10 / sinemet-selegiline-prozac almonte-ontario-canada / [log in to unmask]