The sleep deprived society
Sleep deprivation will cost employers an estimated $2,000 to $3,000 annually per employee, resulting in billions of dollars lost in productivity. Moreover, insufficient sleep is responsible for motor vehicle and machinery-related accidents, causing substantial injury and disability each year. Why are we losing sleep and so sleep deprived?
One of the primary reasons is because people do not understand the importance of sleep. The sleep cycle is a basic need that we must have, just like eating and drinking. Most people feel they don’t have enough time in their days and they don’t make it a priority in their life. As a society, we’re short on time and have too many demands between family, work, school, church, and our social lives. We tend to cut short our sleep time to make room for everything else in our lives; while it may be possible to do this short term, over time the results are detrimental to our health. Studies have shown that sleep is essential for normal immune system function and to maintain the ability to fight disease and sickness. Sleep also is essential for normal nervous system function and the ability to function both physically and mentally. In addition, sleep is essential for learning and for normal, healthy cell growth.
In addition, an estimated 40 million people have underlying sleep disorders that have not been diagnosed and people are failing to realize that sleep disorders are closely linked to other health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke, wound healing, and cardiac problems. A sleep disorder can make disease processes worse and harder to treat for physicians or can actually cause these health problems. Therefore, it is very important to know when one needs to seek medical help for their sleep deprivation.
If a person’s sleep is disturbed only a few days out of the month or occasionally, that is certainly normal. Stress and worry contribute to sleeplessness also; however, if sleeplessness occurs night after night and month after month (especially if you have chronic medical conditions), you should speak to your primary physician about your sleep problems as there could be an underlying sleep disorder such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, or chronic insomnia, which are more common disorders.
It’s important to understand the signs of a sleep disorder. The more notable signs are excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue, snoring-gasping-snorting, morning headaches (a result of loss of oxygen due to sleep apnea and can be very dangerous), dry mouth, restless sleeping with much tossing and turning, constant movement and twitching of legs, up and down at night, only sleeping in two to three hour increments. These are all sure signs of a sleep disorder. If you have these symptoms the majority of your nights, it’s imperative you seek help.
Make sure to make sleep a priority in your life, as it dictates the quality and quantity of life that one has and if you are not getting good sleep and have the above symptoms, talk to your physician.
One of the primary reasons is because people do not understand the importance of sleep. The sleep cycle is a basic need that we must have, just like eating and drinking. Most people feel they don’t have enough time in their days and they don’t make it a priority in their life. As a society, we’re short on time and have too many demands between family, work, school, church, and our social lives. We tend to cut short our sleep time to make room for everything else in our lives; while it may be possible to do this short term, over time the results are detrimental to our health. Studies have shown that sleep is essential for normal immune system function and to maintain the ability to fight disease and sickness. Sleep also is essential for normal nervous system function and the ability to function both physically and mentally. In addition, sleep is essential for learning and for normal, healthy cell growth.
In addition, an estimated 40 million people have underlying sleep disorders that have not been diagnosed and people are failing to realize that sleep disorders are closely linked to other health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke, wound healing, and cardiac problems. A sleep disorder can make disease processes worse and harder to treat for physicians or can actually cause these health problems. Therefore, it is very important to know when one needs to seek medical help for their sleep deprivation.
If a person’s sleep is disturbed only a few days out of the month or occasionally, that is certainly normal. Stress and worry contribute to sleeplessness also; however, if sleeplessness occurs night after night and month after month (especially if you have chronic medical conditions), you should speak to your primary physician about your sleep problems as there could be an underlying sleep disorder such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, or chronic insomnia, which are more common disorders.
It’s important to understand the signs of a sleep disorder. The more notable signs are excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue, snoring-gasping-snorting, morning headaches (a result of loss of oxygen due to sleep apnea and can be very dangerous), dry mouth, restless sleeping with much tossing and turning, constant movement and twitching of legs, up and down at night, only sleeping in two to three hour increments. These are all sure signs of a sleep disorder. If you have these symptoms the majority of your nights, it’s imperative you seek help.
Make sure to make sleep a priority in your life, as it dictates the quality and quantity of life that one has and if you are not getting good sleep and have the above symptoms, talk to your physician.
Published: March 2, 2011
