Sleep Facts & Stats - Insomnia and Treatments

A majority of American adults (63%) do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep needed for good health, safety, and optimum performance. In fact, nearly one-third (31%) report sleeping less than seven hours each week night, though many adults say they try to sleep more on weekends. (2001 Sleep in America poll).

More than half of adults surveyed in the 2002 Sleep in America poll said they experienced one or more symptoms of insomnia at least a few nights a week. Insomnia is characterized by difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, or waking too early.

Up to 40% of adults report at least occasional difficulty sleeping; chronic and/or severe insomnia affects about 10-15% of adults, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Direct costs of insomnia, which include dollars spent on insomnia treatment, healthcare services, hospital and nursing home care, are estimated at nearly $14 billion annually. Indirect costs such as work loss, property damage from accidents and transportation to and from healthcare providers, are estimated to be $28 billion.

Sleep apnea, a breathing disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep, affects as many as 18 million people, according to NIH. Estimates indicate that untreated sleep apnea may cause $3.4 billion in additional medical costs (SLEEP, 1992).

Approximately 12 million Americans have restless legs syndrome, a sleep and movement disorder characterized by unpleasant (tingling, crawling, creeping and/or pulling) feelings in the legs, which cause an urge to move in order to relieve the symptoms.

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Women & Sleep

Women are different from men. Although women may prefer to be treated the same as men in the workplace, when it comes to sleeping, there are differences. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), women are more likely than men to have difficulty falling and staying asleep and to experience more daytime sleepiness on a weekly basis. Research has shown that too little sleep results in problems concentrating, poor performance on the job and in school, and, possibly, increased sickness and weight gain.

Biological conditions unique to women, like the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause, can affect how well they sleep. This is because the changing levels of hormones that a woman experiences throughout the month and over her lifetime, like estrogen and progesterone, have an impact on sleep. Understanding the effects of these hormones, environmental factors and lifestyle habits can help women enjoy a good night's sleep.

Menstruation can lead to real sleep problems for women. According to a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, half of all menstruating women surveyed reported bloating that disturbs their sleep. On average, these women reported disrupted sleep for two to three days each menstrual cycle. These changes can be linked to the rise and fall of hormone levels in the body.

Pregnancy brings on another sleep challenge. Physical symptoms (body aches, nausea, leg cramps, movements of the baby and heartburn), as well as emotional changes (depression, anxiety, worry), can interfere with sleep. In the NSF poll, 78 percent of women reported experiencing more disturbed sleep during pregnancy than at other times.

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How To Get A Good Night's Sleep

Medications aren't always the best solution for insomnia. Some simple lifestyle strategies may help:

1) Stay on schedule. Go to bed and get up around the same time every day. The body's natural sleep-wake patterns, called circadian rhythms, can be disrupted by abrupt schedule swings. Maintaining a regular bedtime schedule helps train the body to sleep at the desired time.

2) Make your bed a resting place, not a media center. Go to bed when you're tired, but if you find you can't sleep, get out of bed. Go into another room and watch television or read a book. When you're truly sleepy, go back to bed.
3) Say "No" to Naps. If you nap during the day, you will require less sleep at night. This can cause insomnia, and your sleep times may become too brief to include high quality deep sleep.

4) Choose the right soundtrack. Use a fan or a white-noise generator in the bedroom to create a soothing sound and help mask other noises.

5) Cut back on caffeine and alcohol. Don't drink anything caffeinated after lunchtime. Avoid alcohol late in the evening, or give it up entirely for a while. Even though alcohol acts as a sedative, it disrupts normal sleep patterns and causes awakenings later during the night.

6) See the light. Properly timed light exposure can shift the body's sleep-wake cycle. People who wake up earlier than they'd like should minimize morning light with heavy curtains or comfortable eyeshades and maximize their exposure to bright light in the evening before bedtime. People who have trouble falling asleep at bedtime and then tend to oversleep in the morning can shift their rhythms earlier with the reverse strategy.

7) Try warm milk at bedtime.This old advice does seem to help some people. The effect may be strictly psychological — but so what, if it works? There also may be a physiological explanation: The warm beverage may temporarily increase the core body temperature, and the subsequent temperature drop may hasten sleep.

8) Check your medications. Many medications can cause insomnia, so ask your doctor or pharmacist about all the drugs you take. For example, the decongestants that many people take at bedtime can have a stimulating effect.

9) Don't self-medicate. There's little evidence that supplements and other over-the-counter "sleep aids" are effective. In some cases, there are safety concerns. Antihistamine sleep aids, in particular, have a long duration of action and can cause daytime drowsiness.

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6 Reasons for Good Sleep

1. Learning and memory
Sleep helps your brain commit new information to memory. People who get a good night's sleep before taking tests or performing a new task usually do better than people who are tested immediately after learning something new. Other studies seem to show that people are more insightful or creative in their problem solving after getting a full night’s sleep.

2. Weight
A constant lack of sleep may cause weight gain by altering the way the body processes and stores carbohydrates, and by stimulating the release of cortisol, a stress hormone. Excess cortisol has been linked to an increase in abdominal fat. Loss of sleep also reduces levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite, and increases ghrelin (GRELL-in), an appetite-stimulating hormone — a combination that can encourage eating.

3. Safety
There’s no evidence that we ever adapt to chronic sleep loss. This sleep "debt" contributes to daytime sleepiness, including “microsleeps,” seconds-long daytime dips into sleep. These lapses may cause falls, injury and road accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year, drowsiness causes 100,000 vehicle crashes, resulting in 76,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths.

4. Quality of life
Long- and short-term sleep loss causes irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate and moodiness. Too little sleep can leave you so tired that you don’t want to spend time with family and friends or have sex. Poor sleep affects the ability to work. Sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea are associated with depression.

5. Heart and lung health
We don’t know much about how chronic sleep loss affects heart health and our lungs. But serious sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea have been linked to high blood pressure and irregular heart beat. Lack of sleep increases stress hormone levels and inflammation, two factors associated with heart attacks.

6. Immunity
Although not all the facts are clear, scientists have found that sleep deprivation alters the body's immune system, which fights off illness. For example, sleep loss around the time of a flu shot has been shown to reduce the production of flu-fighting antibodies.

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Treatment of Insomnia/Sleep disorder

Treatments of insomnia help reduce symptoms associated with many types of sleep disorders. Doctors generally prefer to use the least invasive treatment method possible. This includes simple lifestyle changes which are often good enough to significantly reduce or eliminate sleep disorder symptoms.
However, a doctor may recommend additional treatment methods for which may include the following:

1) Medications. They include over-the-counter or prescription formulations.
2) Relaxation therapies. Various techniques are available that can help patients to experience a greater sense of relaxation (e.g., meditation), which may improve sleep.
3) Psychotherapy and cognitive behavior therapy. These may lessen a patient’s stress and anxiety, and therefore reduce symptoms of sleep disorders.
4) Breathing devices. Patients with sleep apnea may require a form of mechanical breathing aid known as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).
5) Surgery. Surgery to remove excess throat tissue may sometimes relieve symptoms associated with sleep apnea.
Lifestyle changes such as losing weight, engaging in regular exercise and avoiding substances that inhibit or disrupt sleep (e.g., caffeine, alcohol) are particularly helpful in treating sleep disorders, especially insomnia. This also may include establishing a consistent and relaxing bedtime routine.

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What does insomnia do to you?

The symptoms of insomnia could vary from being so mild that you barely know you have it, to being so severe that you can hardly function when awake.

Whenever you have insomnia, you will experience some or even all of the following: tiredness, lack of energy, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, inability to concentrate, reduced ability to learn and remember things, diminished alertness, irritability.

Insomnia is responsible for a large proportion of accidents – at home, at work and on the road. It affects your ability to succeed at work or school, and it can disrupt, even ruin, your relationships with other people.

If you have chronic (long-term) insomnia you are also more likely to suffer from depression, hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, and/or heart disease to name just a few of its severe and even life-threatening consequences.

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Sleep is more important to women than men

About half of all Americans occasionally have trouble falling or remaining asleep. A new research suggests that women may not only have a harder time falling asleep than men, but may be more negatively impacted by a lack of sleep.

Insomnia is more common in women, especially after menopause due to the hormonal fluctuations that occur in women during menstruation, pregnancy and menopause.

Women who get five hours of sleep a night or less may be putting their health at risk - more so than men who do the same. Women may be twice as likely to suffer from high blood pressure as women who sleep the recommended seven hours or more each night.

Sleep disorders can impact many people by interfering with the amount and quality of rest they receive while sleeping. For example, some sleep disorders, such as snoring, can disrupt sleep patterns and leave you feeling fatigued in the morning. In many cases, lifestyle changes, medications, surgery or the use of medical devices can resolve most sleep disorders.

The following are some tips that can help you to have better sleep:
1) Keep a regular schedule of going to bed and waking in the morning.
2) Keep the bedroom cool, dark and quiet.
3) Make sure you have a comfortable bed. A good mattress is vital to good sleep. Some people prefer a firm mattress while others like a softer bed.
4) Avoid substances such as nicotine, caffeine and alcohol.
5) Exercise regularly.
6) Learn relaxation techniques. Yoga, breathing exercises and other techniques can all help reduce stress and anxiety that may hamper sleep.
7) Drink warm fluids before bedtime.

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