A recent article in the Psychiatric News periodical discusses a survey that reveals a large number of women in the United States are sleep deprived. There’s a quote saying “Americal women struggle to do it all…” The women in the poll said they lacked the time to meet all of their obligations in addition to participating in extra leisurely activities. Thirty percent said they were too weary to or busy to have sex.
You can see the article at Psychiatry Online Women Sleep Article
There are a number of trends documented with the study such as how many women used sleep aids and how 17% reported getting less than six hours. The most significant finding to me was 25% of the women had been diagnosed with depression and 16% with an anxiety disorder. This is not completely surprising as sleep is esential to mental well-being. However, these percentages are higher than the prevelance rates of depression and anxiety in the general population. Are we depressed because we’re not sleeping or are we not sleeping because we’re depressed.
I would venture to say that the respondents in this survey were likely falling into the common pattern of sacrificing sleep for the sake of meeting family, financial and personal obligations. The author ends by saying women need to make sleep a priority to set an example for their families. This suggests becoming sleep deprived is a choice women make. Unfortunately some are unable to sleep due to factors beyond their control (child interuptions, shift work, medical or psychiatric conditions, etc.). If only they could choose to sleep.
Nevertheless, sleep is critical and affects our mental and physical functioning on a global scale. More on sleep in future posts.
Let me know what you think