One in Ten Americans Are Chronically Sleep Deprived 329
WirePosted writes "A CDC research study released this past week indicates that the physical and mental health of many Americans is being adversely affected by a lack of sleep. According to the study, a part of the organization's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, one in ten US citizens are consistently failing to get enough sleep every night. Almost 40% of the people surveyed didn't get enough sleep for more than a week every month. The article notes that this trend can have far-ranging implications for health beyond simple fatigue."
Cue the 3AM jokes... (Score:5, Interesting)
In all seriousness, despite being a major geek (I'm posted to slashdot at 3am on a Sunday, that should be geek-cred enough!), I decided to get rid of my HDTV (and in fact, stop watching TV alltogether) as an experiment. Although I miss The Daily Show, Colbert, and a few others, I've found I actually prefer not having it.. and as a rather shocking side effect, I actually keep better hours now. Suddenly I realized that the insomnia I've had since I was 13 or so, is at least in large part, related to certain stimuli. TV being one of them. As you can probably tell by the fact that I'm awake at 3:30AM on a Sunday, the Internet is an even bigger culprit.. and I'm in the process of working out how I can dial back its hold on me.
What's enough? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's funny cuz it's truuue... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps that is part of the reason why we americans do not rate very highly on the global happiness scale.
Think about it.
Recommended Reading (Score:5, Interesting)
- The Twenty-Four Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World That Never Sleeps [amazon.com] by Martin Moore-Ede
He's also written several other books having to do with sleep and circadian rhythm.Among the anecdotes in the book are an account of a coast-to-coast airplane crew who put the plane on autopilot then all fell asleep. The plane, loaded with passengers, overshot the destination and was a hundred miles out to sea before air traffic control was able to wake them over the radio.
Also, the author was paid a visit by a Secret Service agent - the people who guard the life of the US President. It seems they were expected to stay on the same shift, in local time, no matter where in the world the President went. That is, if they work 9 to 5 Washington time, then fly to Iraq, say - where the president has visited a couple times - they are expected to then work 9 to 5 Iraqi time, without taking any time to get used to the time zone change. The agent who consulted the author felt that their constant exhaustion that resulted put the President's life at risk.
My own experience includes, at my very first salaried programming job, where I wasn't paid very much and didn't get overtime pay, I was regularly expected to work twenty-hour days and once worked a twenty-nine hour day.
When I was self-employed as a software consultant, quite often I'd work twenty hour days trying to make a milestone so I could get paid. Several times, when times were really hard, I worked forty-hour "days".
Employers of salaried employees seem to feel quite justified in requiring their employees to work without enough sleep. I'd like to see legislation passed that forbids this. Even if your paid work isn't safety-critical, going without sleep needlessly puts lives at risk when you drive your car home. People are killed all the time when drivers fall asleep at the wheel.
Thats because we don't get... (Score:5, Interesting)
And to think how the dollar is falling against the euro.... go figure...
Re:Cue the 3AM jokes... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Stimuli (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, now with the amount of trash on TV (even with Sky) then there is nothing to watch from 7pm but the news, and even that repeats every half-hour!
On a more related note, who are most likely to be sleep deprived if it is only one in ten - the lowest earners, who need to work every hour they can to survive, or the highest earners, who feel they have to work more than their contract to keep their job?
Personally, I get about seven or eight hours every night and I still sometimes feel sleep deprived!
It's even worse for some of us... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:News just in: (Score:3, Interesting)
Then you should reappraise your lifestyle. Personally I spend about 7 in office and 0 hours commuting because I work
for myself and 7 hours of quality time is more productive than 12 hours from a sleep deprived zombie who would notice
how degraded his performance was if only he wasn't so chronically sleep deprived. Of course, there are people who function
well on very little sleep at certain tasks, but contemplative life changing choices can almost never be properly made by the sleep deprived.
Re:Cue the 3AM jokes... (Score:3, Interesting)
That's in addition to extreme irritability and just being a downright nasty person sometimes -- even to people I care about. I have relatives who have clinical depression, and I began exhibiting many of the same symptoms. I think this also has a lot to do with the fact that I was drinking copious amounts of coffee to try to make up for the sleep I wasn't getting. The weird part is that I knew it was happening and felt powerless to fix it.
It seems to take a long time (months) to recover from this. I've been working shorter hours and much closer to home now for about 7 months. Only recently have I begun feeling "normal" again -- last month or so. Over the past few months my mood has improved dramatically and I feel like I'm able to answer a question without an initial blank stare while I figure out what's being asked of me.
While I may not make the same money I used to, my quality of life is vastly improved. I'd only go back to what I was doing if I was really in dire straights.
Re:It's even worse for some of us... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's even worse for some of us... (Score:2, Interesting)
I gave in and went to see the doc, he ran the standard tests (cholesterol and thyroid) and everything came back that I was perfectly healthy. So even with being athletic, and low weight, no apparent physiological issues, my doc wants to put me on sleep meds (ambien). I didn't want a fscking bandaid, I wanted a reason. He didn't want to run a sleep study, and I was unwilling to take meds with an increased incidence of sleep walking/driving.
I gave up with the doctor route, and started taking a low dosage B-complex vitamin which I discovered through my own research can help if you're having sleep issues. Surprisingly, I started feeling a little better, but was still having sleep issues. So I upped the dosage to an extended release B-100 complex. Lo and behold, my sleep issues were almost nonexistent within a couple of days.
So people, don't rely solely on your doctor to solve your problems. Do your own research (from legitimate sites like webmd) and see what you can come up with. Too often these days, doctors just don't care and are just looking for the quick fix to get you out of their office.
**On a side note, I'm currently working over 80 hours/wk at 2 full-time jobs (one is overnight IT shift). I have weekends completely off, still manage to find time to get to the gym, have a decent family life and still feel relatively well rested. Yay B-100!
I wouldn't advise it for everybody. (Score:3, Interesting)
Some people can eat nothing but cheese and meat and sugar and have low cholesterol and low triglycerides. I wouldn't advise it for everybody.
Some people can go for years without seeing a dentist and end up with no cavities when they do finally visit. I wouldn't advise it for everybody.
Some people smoke 3 packs a day and live to be 90 years old. I wouldn't advise it for everybody.
Just because Margaret Thatcher could go for long periods with little sleep without falling apart doesn't mean that the rule of 7-9 hours for most people is wrong. People who try to refute rules that DO well apply almost everyone you'll ever meet by pointing out lone examples where they may not apply are doing nothing but trying to shout down useful guides for us mortal humans who aren't winners of the genetic lottery. Exceptions-driven rules are pointless when the simpler rule applies to 99.9% of the population.
So, Margaret Thatcher may be able to work on 3-4 hours per night, but I think you can guess what I'd say to that.
Re:Cue the 3AM jokes... (Score:3, Interesting)
Part of me was aware that this really wasn't how I should be feeling and acting. My life wasn't a horrible mess like my anxiety kept telling me, if I could just dial down for a good night's sleep everything would be turned around the next day. Knowing that didn't make me feel any better though. I kept most of it internalized, so that the actual effect of being so fucked up on the inside would be minimal once the phase had passed. But I continually tendered thoughts of flipping out on people at work and quitting my job to leave the company to handle the mess I had been shielding them from with my consecutive 60-hour no-overtimepay work weeks.
It was unnerving to see how easily my personality could be subverted by a simple lack of sleep.
Re:It's even worse for some of us... (Score:-1, Interesting)
Re:More than 7 hours needed? Slashdot editors? (Score:3, Interesting)
-b
Re:Cue the 3AM Defenestration jokes... (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Set the alarm for 3:30AM
2. Cook full English breakfast
3. Start drinking beer if Kimi is winning.
4. Go to sleep ready for normal life
With the 2008 season a week away from firing back into action I'm seriously considering staying TV/Cable free, not just because of sleep disorientation every two weeks but because the channel that carries it - SpeedTV - sucks so bad. They push ads for NASCAR and crummy Reality TV shows down your eyes constantly.
As soon as the F1 folks realize there's a market for live streaming and/or downloadable HD F1 races the better.