Is the Economy Keeping You Up at Night?
You are not alone if economic doom and gloom are keeping you up at night. One-third of Americans reported losing sleep over the state of the nation’s economy in a new poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). Job layoffs, forced furloughs, mortgage foreclosures, tight credit, and rising grocery prices have more Americans spending their pillow time worrying about personal finances instead of sleeping. As if economic stress weren’t enough, inadequate sleep adds to the strain placed on emotional and physical health.
Sleep allows the body to recharge and heal. Sleep experts say the average adult needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Not getting enough sleep increases your risk of heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and depression. Sleep deprivation has been linked to highway accidents and increased injuries in construction, manufacturing and transportation occupations.
“We don’t take sleep seriously enough,” Dr. Michael Sateia, director of Sleep Disorders Service at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, told R. Morgan Griffin in an article on WebMD. “It’s essential to life. If you disrupt the sleep cycle, you could face grave health repercussions throughout your body…. Getting enough sleep should be considered just as important as eating a healthy diet and exercising.”
According to the NSF’ Sleep in America poll, only 28% of Americans get 8 hours of sleep each night, 10% less than in 2001. Twenty percent of us– 2 in every 10 — get less than 6 hours sleep a night, up 7% since 2001. Not surprisingly, over the past eight years 13% more Americans report experiencing chronic sleep problems.
“It’s easy to understand why so many people are concerned over the economy and jobs, but sacrificing sleep is the wrong solution,” said David Cloud, NSF CEO in a NSF press release. “Sleep is essential to productivity and alertness and is a vital sign for one’s overall health.”
People who regularly get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night are twice as likely as those who get inadequate sleep to work efficiently, exercise and eat healthfully, according to the NSF poll. Unfortunately, while 40% of the people polled agreed that sleep is an important component of good health, only 32% said they discussed sleep problems with their doctor.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] “Economic insomnia” is one more complication of America’s financial meltdown, and psychiatric experts warn that it could be making us crazy. People are losing sleep worrying about job loss, foreclosure and bankruptcy. The longer the recession continues, the greater the chance that the financial boogeyman will creep out of the closet and steal away our ability to provide basic necessities for our families. Nearly everyone knows someone who has lost their job to economic demons, and most of us have had to make lifestyle changes. Worry is making for a lot of restless nights. Researchers warn that lack 0f sleep increases the risk of depression and other serious psychiatric conditions. “When you are tired, when you’re worn out, then everything becomes more of a challenge for you,” Dr. Adam Moscovitch, medical director of the Canadian Sleep Institute in Toronto, told Calgary Herald reporter Sharon Kirkey in an April 12, 2009 online article. ”Your confidence is affected, your ability to trust yourself. So there is a higher likelihood you’ll be ruminating about, are you doing things right? It significantly affects, from the psychologic standpoint, the [risk] of mental illness developing.” [...]
[...] at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Generally, it may be that psychology plays a larger role than economics in decisions of when to file,” Krebaum said in an April 14, 2009 article on UPI.com. More [...]