Sleep Problems on the Rise Due to Economy: How to Get Your Sleep Back

Sleep Problems on the Rise Due to Economy:
How to Get Your Sleep Back
by www.SixWise.com

http://www.sixwise.com/Newsletters/2009/March/18/Sleep-Problems-on-the-Rise-Due-to-Economy.htm?source=nl

The slumping economy has now made its way into many Americans’ bedrooms, where it’s interfering with sleep at alarming rates. Nearly one-third of Americans say they can’t get a good night’s sleep because they’re worrying about the economy, money or their job, according to a new poll by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF).

In fact, worries about money are more prominent than worries about global warming, the threat of a terrorist attack or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In all, 27 percent of those polled said their sleep had been disturbed in the past month due to money problems, such as:

* Personal finances (16 percent)
* The economy (15 percent)
* Losing their job (10 percent)

"What is very telling is that these Americans whose sleep is impacted by financial worries report that their sleep disturbance makes them much less likely to work efficiently, exercise, eat healthily, and have sex compared to their better-sleeping fellow Americans," report co-author Michael V. Vitiello, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at University of Washington told Yahoo News.

People who had trouble sleeping were also more than twice as likely to miss out on family events, leisure activities and work functions because they were tired, the poll found.

The Steep Risks of Too Little Sleep

“Getting enough sleep everyday is as important to your health as eating healthy and being physically active,” says Woodie Kessel, MD, MPH, Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS (ret.) who was a member of the 2009 Sleep in America poll taskforce.

Further, according to the Sleep Council, not sleeping enough could:

* Make you fat. People who sleep four hours a night or less are 73 percent more likely to be overweight than those who sleep enough. Even if you sleep less than six hours a night, you're 25 percent more likely to be overweight than those who sleep longer.

* Increase your appetite (also causing you to gain weight). Research by University of Bristol researchers found that people who slept for five hours had 15 percent more of a hormone called ghrelin, which increases your appetite, than those who slept for eight hours. Meanwhile, the short sleepers also had 15 percent less leptin, which is a hormone that suppresses appetite.

* Mimic the aging process. In fact, University of Chicago researchers found that sleeping for four hours a night for less than seven nights interferes with your ability to process and store carbs, and regulate hormone levels -- all of which may lead to aging.

* Impact your brain.


To read the full article: http://www.sixwise.com/Newsletters/2009/March/18/Sleep-Problems-on-the-Rise-Due-to-Economy.htm?source=nl