The Insomnia Pandemic: There is a problem in America: People are not sleeping. At least not well or enough. Americans are often not affording themselves enough time to sleep, or when they do they are often unable to initiate or maintain sleep. Current statistics reveal that 55 percent of Americans will experience insomnia during their lives. Other factors will also undermine sleep: emotional stress, shift work and unstable day/night cycles, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, illness, chronic pain, external noise and distraction and yes, hunger (even here in the great old US of A). Also, many simply are not affording themselves enough sleep. Many are working longer hours or multiple jobs to keep up with financial pressures. Others choose to stay up late playing video games, chatting online, watching TV etc. Summing this all up, an unfathomable percentage of Americans are not obtaining sufficient sleep.
insomnia: an American pandemic
Some recent data suggests that:
- Forty-eight percent of Americans report insomnia occasionally, while 22 percent experience insomnia every or almost every night.
- Women are 1.3 times more likely to report insomnia than men.
- People over age 65 are 1.5 times more likely to complain of insomnia than younger people.
- Divorced, widowed and separated people report more insomnia.
Consequences of the problem:
- People with insomnia are four times as likely to suffer from depression than people who sleep well. (chicken or the egg?)
- Contributes to anxiety and panic symptoms.
- Lack of sleep due to insomnia may contribute to illness, including heart disease. It also contributes to obesity.
- Safety on the job, at home, and on the road may be affected by sleepiness.
- People with insomnia may miss more time from work or receive fewer promotions.
- After a poor night’s sleep, many people report accomplishing fewer daily tasks and enjoying activities less.
- Approximately $14 billion per year is spent on sleep medication and other medical costs related to sleep. The costs of other indirect consequences of sleep deprivation are incalculable.
- Poor concentration. Disrupted memory consolidation and learning ability. Overall declines in cognitive function.
There are a number of factors that are contributing to this pandemic. Certainly stress is considered a primary causal factor. The nervous system, if in perpepetual overdrive, has a hard time settling. It can’t just go from high arousal to low arousal in a short period of time just because we suddenly decide its time for bed. We need some time to “decompress” from the stress of the day. We also need to engage in other life skills and practices to help insure a healthier regulatory balance within our central and peripheral nervous system. Insomnia is likely to result when our system is out of balance. Therefore it can be viewed as a warning that overall life balance needs to be addressed. it can also signal that important emotions are not being duly acknowledged and expressed causing a build up of generalized arousal. Finally, poor sleep hygiene and behavioral conditioning further conspire to intefere with sleep. We try so hard to sleep that we actually develop a conditioned anxiety in association with our bedroom and other sleep related cues (more on this in a subsequent post).
So how do you know if you have a sleep problem?
1) The primary criterion to determine the extent of impact of a sleep problem is simply how you feel during the day. If you have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning and often feel as though your “ass is dragging” throughout the day: though not very scientific sounding, those are probably the best indicators.
2) If it takes you more than 20 -30 minutes to fall asleep or if you wake up during the night and have a hard time falling asleep. Interestingly, if you are one of those who fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow, that can indicate a problem as well in that it indicates that you are sleep deprived and in need of more or better quality sleep.
3) Your significant others tell you that you snore loudly, move frequently, have breathing irregularities. This can indicate the presence of an obstructive sleep apnea (difficulty breathing at night), restless legs or other sleep issues.
4) You frequently require prescription or over the counter sleep aids to fall or stay asleep.
Your mental and physical health is directly tied to how well you are sleeping. How you are sleeping is also an important indicator of how well you are living. Thus, as a practicing psychotherapist, I put a lot of emphasis on assessing and intervening where necessary with sleep issue.
The next post will address some critical and modifiable aspects of how we are living that impacts sleep.
Please, as always, feel free to chime in!!!!
