Sleep Deprivation: A Growing Health Problem

   	 Auburn, Feb. 18, 2003 --- Mom was right all along: If you don’t get enough sleep, bad 
things could happen to you.
	While it seems like reasonable enough advice, millions of adult Americans still aren’t 
heeding it, even though studies continue to show that sleep is as vital to good health as eating 
wisely and exercising regularly.  
       Adults, experts say, need between six and 10 hours of sleep each night, though most 
experts recommend around eight hours. Children require even more – as much as nine and even 
10 hours of sleep in some cases.
	For adults, the price of sleepless nights over a lifetime is often reflected in chronic health 
problems.
	“You may say you feel okay getting by with less sleep, but experts are finding over time 
that among sleep-deprived adults, changes are taking place in the body that cause you to be less 
healthy,” says Dr. Robert Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutritionist.  
	“Sleep deprivation, after all, is a form of stress, and when you’re stressed, your body 
reacts in ways that aren’t beneficial in the long run.”
	Numerous studies support this view.  One of the most recent sleep-related studies, for 
example, tracked adults over a 19-year period.  It revealed that those who did not sleep as well or 
encountered problems going to sleep had higher incidences of cancer, heart disease and 
pneumonia.   One’s inability to sleep soundly or to fall to sleep within a reasonable time are 
typical byproducts of sleep deprivation.
	For children, the risks associated with sleep deprivation are more immediate, Keith says. 
	Recent reports from the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research and the National 
Institutes of Health indicate that children are not so much at risk of chronic disease as they are 
prone to physical injuries, such as wrecks with their bicycles or falls from playground equipment, 
he says.  
	And for teenagers old enough to drive, the consequences of sleep deprivation can be 
even worse.
	Studies also have shown sleep-deprived kids don’t perform as well in school.
	This, Keith says, is why it’s so important for parents to ensure a normal sleep schedule 
for children.  
	“If kids require nine hours of sleep, and children have to get up at 6:00 a.m. to go to 
school, then parents should insist that they go to bed at 9:00 p.m.,” he says.  “Because if they’re 
waiting to go to bed at about the same time as their parents – 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. – they’re sleep 
deprived and are not going to be doing so well.”
	Research also has shown that sleep is much more effective when it takes place in a 
regular pattern, Keith says.	
	“Sleeping 10 hours to make up for the six hours you got the night before is not as 
effective as a regular sleep pattern,” he says. “Instead, you should be going to bed at regular 
hours and striving to get up at the same time every morning, because your body needs the right 
amount of sleep in a regular pattern.”
	“This is particularly true for kids, especially when they’re in school.”
	Some of history’s most famous insomniacs, most notably Winston Churchill, claimed to 
have gotten by with daily catnaps.  But what was good for Churchill, a wartime leader leading a 
life-and-death struggle against Nazi Germany, isn’t the best choice for an ordinary person holding 
a day job.
	“Sleep typically involves patterns where you start out with lighter sleep and pass into a 
much deeper sleep – a cycle that may be repeated several times a night,” Keith says.  “Getting 
adequate sleep requires passing through all of these phases – something you don’t get with 
catnaps.”
	For sleep-deprived Americans determined to get their lives in order, Keith offers two rules 
of thumb.
	First, avoid caffeinated drinks, such as tea and coffee, in the evening, especially before 
bed.  The same goes for late-night alcohol.   Yes, alcohol makes you drowsy, but it’s also known 
to disrupt normal sleep patterns.
	And finally, avoid exercising in the evening.  
	“Exercise is good for you, but it does gear up your system and can be detrimental to 
sleep if postponed until late into the day,” he says.
	Despite best efforts of health experts such as Keith, sleep deprivation, much like obesity 
and sedentary lifestyles, likely will remain a permanently ingrained problem in modern society.
	“We really are a sleep-deprived society,” he observes. “We’re busy, and that, coupled 
with the aid of modern conveniences such as electric lights and 24-hour shopping, we’ve created 
a situation where we have less incentive to sleep.”
	Unfortunately, Keith says, human evolution hasn’t yet caught up with our growing 
penchant for staying up late.
	“Try as we might, we just can’t get by on four hours of sleep every day – our bodies just 
don’t work that way.”

(Source: Dr. Robert Keith, Extension Nutritionist, 334-844-3273.)