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One in Ten Americans Are Chronically Sleep Deprived
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."
Oh, the delicious amusement that struck me at seeing this article about sleep deprivation appear at 3:30AM (Pacific time zone, United States).
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.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Joking aside, workaholism leads to lack of sleep which may lead to chronic fatigue and depression.
Perhaps that is part of the reason why we americans do not rate very highly on the global happiness scale.
Think about it.
- The Twenty-Four Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World That Never Sleeps 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.
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... month long vacations like in some european countries.
And to think how the dollar is falling against the euro.... go figure...
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!
In this day and age it seems as if most people exist on six hours a night, with eight being a luxury, and greater than that considered lazy. Unfortunately for me, I have narcolepsy (though fortunately the kind sans cataplexy). Six hours of sleep for me is no more than a tease, and more often I'd be better off just trying to stay up. Eight hours for me is how I'd imagine six hours would feel for someone normal: enough to make you feel as if you had slept, without being refreshing in any meaningful way. My body simply does not function well on less than ten hours sleep. On the weekends I've slept as much as sixteen hours a day (depending how much sleep I got during the weekdays). This would not be so bad if it were not for all the horrible life effects that sleeping as much as this has. I essentially can not have what normal people consider a social life. My wife feels like she hardly sees me. A friend of mine will ask me to go play some pool or something and I never end up going because I get ribbed for being an "old man" for NEEDING to go to bed by 10 or 11 PM on a WEEKEND. Anything greater would throw off my sleep schedule for the following week. I did find some nice medicine that helped GREATLY (only needed the normal 7-8 hours a night like anyone else!) but is unfortunately not covered by my insurance, and is thus out of my financial reach. (As an aside, you think software patents are bad? You should see the harm caused by some pharmacological patents. See that article for some detail). The alternative medication, that is covered, amounts to little more than legal meth which turns me into a zombie who doesn't need his sleep as much, but am otherwise intolerable. So be happy with your 6-8 hours, it could be worse.
I was quoted out of context in my autobiography...
> If you spend twelve hours at the office and three hours a day communiting
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.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
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.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Yes! Thank you for pointing this out. You are absolutely correct. I have never killed anyone, but I have issues with certain things as a result of being shot AT. I think I might have issues from not being ABLE to shoot back. I have talked with other vets (Air Force usually, from Vietnam) who have the same issues. The total lack of control, the randomness of it, the powerlessness... It's a crap situation under any circumstances.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
We turned our cable service off and returned the DVR at the end of last years Formula 1 season because that was pretty much all we watched on TV (all the kids stuff we buy on DVD or get from iTunes) but I'll tell ya, watching the European races live really hurts when you're on Pacific Time:
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.