My impression, during the past several years, is that many people are sleeping less than would be considered adequate for optimal overall well being and functioning. However, the definitions of “too little” vary somewhat and the available research on the subject provides rather mixed information.
The National Sleep Foundation in the United States maintains that eight to nine hours of sleep for adult humans is optimal and that sufficient sleep improves alertness, memory, problem solving ability, and overall health, as well as reducing the risk of accidents. A widely publicized 2003 study performed at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine demonstrated that cognitive performance declines with fewer than eight hours of sleep. However, a University of California, San Diego psychiatry study of more than one million adults found that people who live the longest self-report sleeping for six to seven hours each night. It is also true that like so many things, one formula does not necessarily apply to everyone. There are those who thrive well with much less sleep than others who begin to malfunction if they don’t satisfy their minimum sleep requirement.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims that Americans are getting less sleep due to late-night TV watching, Internet surfing, and other distractions. All this sleeplessness can be a nightmare for your mental and physical health, CDC experts cautioned, calling sleep loss an under-recognized public health problem. What is rarely mentioned in the literature on sleep are the individuals who experience difficulties due to a trauma history associated with their sleeping experiences. One client reported trouble falling asleep, remaining asleep, and often awakening in a startled state. Her sleep-related difficulties were traceable to an alcoholic father who regularly terrorized the family by coming home drunk and selecting a family member to physically beat from a sleeping to a waking state. Twenty-five years later, this client reported sleeping to be “unsafe” since she remained “on high alert” having been conditioned to anticipate middle of the night attacks from her tyrannical and sadistic father. None of this had been presented as a basis for her seeking therapy until her sleep experiences were routinely investigated.
Sleep experts say chronic sleep loss is associated with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking. The CDC said 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep loss and sleep disorders in a country of 300 million.
The leading researcher of the CDC study, behavioral scientist Lela McKnight-Eily, urged people who often get too little sleep to see a doctor to determine whether lifestyle issues are to blame or whether they might have a sleeping disorder. Also mentioned in the study are two oft-heard common sense recommendations to assist people in their efforts toward better sleep: establish a regular sleep schedule and avoid caffeine or other stimulants before bedtime.
