Miles to go before I sleep: America is becoming a culture of sleeplessness

Surveys show most adults get less sleep than their bodies need, which can result in exacerbation of health risks.

By Stephanie Stapleton, amednews staff. Feb. 19, 2001.

It's 8 a.m., rush hour at almost every Starbucks. People with bleary eyes fight back yawns as they wait in line for the jolt that will help them start the day. They'll likely need another one in the midafternoon, just to get over the hump.

The pressures of life, work and leisure have triggered an expansion in the productive hours on the clock. As a result, people are more and more tired. Whether it is a medical resident pulling long shifts, a dot-com entrepreneur whose workdays stretch well into the night or a parent struggling to balance the demands of work and family, there simply do not seem to be enough hours in the day. And sleep is one of the first things sacrificed.

Indeed, America is becoming a culture of sleeplessness. Just as this trend is on the upswing, scientists are uncovering evidence of the serious health implications that may follow.

The result: Doctors and patients face challenges completely different from fighting off the sandman. First, both are coming to realize that adequate rest ranks as high as nutrition and exercise in terms of behaviors that are central to maintaining good health. In addition, physicians and patients need to become more aware that sleep difficulties are health problems that can be addressed.

The Center for the Advancement of Health, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes recognition of how psychological, social, behavioral and environmental factors influence health, describes sleep as "a dynamic behavior during which important physiological changes take place, both in the brain and in the body." It affects mental and physical well-being -- the ability to think and function. [...]

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