Losing sleep can make you more prone to serious health conditions. One study shows not sleeping for more than 20 hours, then getting behind the wheel can make you as impaired as someone who's legally drunk!
BACKGROUND: According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010), over 25 percent of Americans experience occasional sleep deprivation. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function.
RISK FACTORS: Sleep deprivation can lead over a period of time to issues of the heart. There is sleep apnea (where a person stops breathing) as well and that's what causes them to not sleep well during the night. Other risk include:
- Diabetes is increased.
- The risk of stroke's doubled.
- The risk of heart attack is doubled or tripled in certain groups.
- There are blood pressure issues.
Teens and adults can also be more irritable and moody, and teens are subject to more behavior problems in school, being tardy, missing classes.
TECHNOLOGY: A whopping 95 percent of Americans use some kind of technology an hour before they go to sleep, the National Sleep Foundation found. 61 percent of Americans use a laptop or computer an hour before they go to bed. Generation Z and Generation Y were most likely to engage in that activity with 55 percent and 47 percent of people in those groups saying they use a computer before bed, respectively.
Generation Z and Generation Y members are nearly twice as likely as baby boomers to play a video game an hour before trying to go to sleep.
The light from screens from electronics like notebooks and phones could prevent your body from producing melatonin, the hormone that is produced naturally in darkness and helps regulate sleep. Reading exciting news articles or playing games keeps your mind very active, making it difficult for you to relax and be 'ready' to fall asleep.
? For More Information, Contact:
Steve Howard
The Children's Lung, Asthma & Sleep Specialists
(407)898-2767 Ext.211
- Ivanhoe Broadcast News
