WASHINGTON — Are you feeling sleep deprived? If so, you are not alone.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a nationwide telephone survey on sleep habits and found one in three American adults don’t get enough sleep.
“In general, yes, we are a fairly sleep deprived nation,” says Dr. Neal K. Maru, a sleep specialist with Integrated Neurology Services in Alexandria, Virginia.
About one-third of those surveyed by the CDC in all 50 states and the District of Columbia said they slept less than seven hours a night — short of the seven to nine hours recommended for most adults.
The D.C. metro area scored roughly in the middle of the pack, though some parts of the region did a little better than the national average and some a bit worse.
Across the country, 64.9 percent of survey respondents reported adequate sleep. In D.C., the number was 67.8 percent; in Virginia, it was 64 percent. Maryland reported 61.1 percent.
Maru says that means a high number of people are falling way short of our sleep needs, although he admits he’s not shocked by the numbers.
“I think that is partially a function of how busy the world we live in is,” Maru says. “We are a 24-hour world and it is kind of non-stop.”
Maybe we are all just overbooked, and maybe we are just not making sleep the priority it needs to be in our lives.
Lack of sleep can have severe health consequences, such as increasing the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
It can lead to mental fuzziness and irritability.
Maru says we all need to make sleep a bigger priority, although he acknowledges trying to fit everything in a 24-hour day can be very difficult.
He says there are personal costs related to sleep deprivation as well as societal costs.
Just think of all those drowsy drivers on the road.
“I always say to my patients, ‘when people are tired, accidents happen and when accidents happen, people get hurt.””
Here are Dr. Maru’s tips for a better night’s sleep:
- Stick to a regular sleep schedule. Get up and go to bed at about the same time every day.
- Watch out for caffeine. Drinking too much caffeine after lunch can affect nighttime sleep. Alcohol and tobacco can disrupt sleep as well.
- Get your exercise, but try not to do it too close to bedtime. Some people have issues falling asleep if they exercise within two or three hours before they turn in.
- Have a comfortable bedroom. Keep it quiet, dark and generally cool.
- Try to create some sort of wind-down time at the end of the day. Thirty minutes to an hour before you would like to be asleep, find some activity that calms you and prepares you to go to sleep. A little light reading is OK, but turn off the electronics and just unplug.
