Sleep is a vital part of health.
Along with steady amount of exercise and a good diet, it is part of the trinity
for a healthy lifestyle. The National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends 7-8 hours of sleep per night. People are not getting Too often I hear complaints
over people’s lack of sleep. People seem
to be consistently worn out. This is true
even of the people I know outside of college.
My friends who are in the workforce talk about not getting enough
sleep. I wonder if people are tired
because they do not have good sleeping habits.
Another possible explanation could be the constant demand of life. At least in the United States, we are always
supposed to be going and going. We are
meant to be the proverbial Energizer Bunny(s) of life.
One study I found on what affects sleep gave some enlightening
information on the topic. This Irish et
al. article found caffeine to be the most common factor among the study
participants. The study dubbed caffeine
a “waking health behavior” or WHB. The
participants kept a diary of their daily habits and the researchers looked at
the commonalities. The people of the
study also did not engage in hardly any physical exercise. The 303 people under study also reported
getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night.
Another article on sleep looked at how social relationships affect
sleep patterns. I found this article by
Ailshire and Burgard to particularly interesting because it is such an
understudied factor on sleep. The
authors looked at not only how romantic relationships have an effect on sleep,
but additionally familial relationships.
What can be done to make sleep a more important factor of health? Will it have to be a complete overhaul of the
U.S. society’s get-it-done personality?
Will we address the less common factors affecting sleep? All questions to hopefully be answered in the
future.
Ailshire,
J. A., & Burgard, S. A. (2012). Family relationships and troubled sleep among
U.S. adults: Examining the influences of contact frequency and relationship
quality. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 53(2), 248-62. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/docview/1021197255?accountid=13360
Irish,
L. A., Kline, C. E., Rothenberger, S. D., Krafty, R. T., Buysse, D. J.,
Kravitz, H. M., . . . Hall, M. H. (2014). A 24-hour approach to the study of
health behaviors: Temporal relationships between waking health behaviors and
sleep. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 47(2), 189-97.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/10.1007/s12160-013-9533-3
Erin, thank you for bringing this understudied topic to our attention! I have never really thought about sleep being an important factor for health. As I was reading your blog post, I couldn’t help but start to make a “social determinants of sleep” web in my head. Caffeine, relationships, work life all have a strong effect on a person’s quantity and quality of sleep. I think an important factor to consider as well, especially in the US, is how our society is set up. The 9-5 workday leaves little room to do anything besides eat dinner and hit the hay. I think some people could find themselves staying up later to get things outside of work complete, such as house projects, etc. Industrialized countries have lots and lots of artificial lights, which can keep people up. Living in an apartment complex with noisy neighbors, working the night shift, or having friends that like to social at night could all be factors that affect sleep, and therefore health, that many people do not see the connection between. An important determinant of health – let us know more that you find out!
ReplyDeleteI really didn't know how much sleep is affecting our health till last year after I took an obesity course. I was astonished to know that one of the MAJOR factors of obesity is sleep disturbances. When I talk about disturbances, I not only mean quantity and quality but also adequate timing. In fact, sleep is a public health issue that is under estimated and targeted by public health professionals. Hectic life and high stress levels may play a role. However; recently I think one of the major barriers to adequate sleep is technological facilities. For most of us, going to bed is linked to the use of smart phones. studies showed that the screen light delays the brain response to sleep and interferes with its quality.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, health education regarding the importance of sleep, its implications on general health and how to achieve healthy sleep habits is a crucial preliminary step for us as public health professionals, as it is considered to be a neglected healthy lifestyle!
great....and how is this related to Global Health?
ReplyDeleteAs I was getting on this blog to comment on others posts I was currently thinking about how tired I was and how I can't wait to go to sleep. Sleep is definitely an important issue to talk about, especially for college students. Many people are unaware of the health risks associated with lack of sleep and when needing to make a time sacrifice, sleeping is usually the first thing to go. Having rigorous course loads, (a million pages of reading), maintaining social relationships, participating in extracurricular activities as well as trying to maintain a healthy diet and exercise routine is not easy. In order to balance all of this in college, you really need good time management. Although there a good number of nights I do not get the full 7-8 hours of sleep, I can't help to think that if I managed my time just a little better I would be able to do so.
ReplyDeleteI think the importance of sleep needs to be studied more and stressed more among college students and people of all ages who are not getting adequate sleep. If the risks are actually laid out to people, they may try harder to manage their time to ensure a nice 7-8 hours slumber each night!