Why You Don't Sleep Enough

On Thursday the CDC reported that Americans are getting less sleep than ever due to late night TV, Internet use and other late night "distractions" (is this the CDC's euphemism for sex?). This is serious stuff, they say.

...all this sleeplessness can be a nightmare for your mental and physical health, CDC experts cautioned, calling sleep loss an under-recognized public health problem.

Sleep experts say chronic sleep loss is associated with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking.

....But the CDC released nationwide data collected separately showing that across all age groups, the percentage of adults reporting sleeping six hours or fewer a night increased from 1985 to 2006.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Children ages 5 to 12 should get nine to 11 hours and those 11 to 17 need 8-1/2 to 9-1/2 hours.

Keep reading.

-or-

Read blogger Janet Kinosian: Why The World Needs More Well-Rested Women.

Read blogger David Allen: Is Thinking Interrupting Your Sleep?

Comments

[sleepfoundation]

Better sleep basics begin in the bedroom. With so many Americans working longer and sleeping less, the National Sleep Foundation created the Great American Sleep Challenge. It is easy, educational and interactive and provides tips to help get better Zzzzs. Visit http://www.sleepfoundation.org/challenge ; take the Sleep Challenge - and be on your way to better sleep tonight.

The National Sleep Foundation

[singermuse]

Ok, it's simple.
9PM: turn OFF the TV, the RADIO, the INTERNET, grab a good book, put on some mellow sounds.
9:30 PM: Brush your teeth, wash your face, put on your jammies and GO TO BED. If people went to bed by 10 PM and got up at 5:30 or 6 AM (or go to bed earlier and/or sleep longer if you need it just so you get 8 hours sleep whatever your schedule) it would save so many lives by preventing so many accidents from sleep deprived people behind the wheel, or sleep deprived students not really able to retain knowledge, or sleep deprived workers not doing a decent job or a sleep deprived government really screwing us up....er, well it'll take a lot more than sleep to save our country! In that case they need to WAKE UP and smell the POVERTY, LACK OF HEALTH CARE (not insurance), ANGRY FED UP SLEEP DEPRIVED LIBERTY DEPRIVED PEOPLE!

[JosephQMaven]

The REAL reason is the microwaves from the cell phones!

It is serious and should not really be a mystery. Research for many years
has shown that microwave exposure (like from cell phones or cell phone towers
or computer Wi-Fi networks) alters EEGs and causes sleep disturbance that
persists after exposure.

Different experiments find different effects
(see http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1252818)
which is not surprising since they used different stimuli.
A recent, larger study has confirmed that sleep suffers after microwave exposure:
http://piers.mit.edu/piersonline/piers?volume=3&number=7&page=1148