“HELP ME SLEEP!” IS A GLOBAL PLEA

If you search Google using the phrase “help me sleep,” you’ll find plenty of sleep tips and tricks from all over the world. Clearly, lack of sleep is a big problem for some people, regardless of where they live. In the United States, the problem is very serious. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than a third of American adults don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis. While the percentage of adults who don’t sleep well varies based on location, ethnicity, employment, and marital status, no group is entirely unaffected. When you don’t get enough sleep, you’re not yourself and can’t quite get up to speed the following day. Chronic sleep loss—regularly sleeping less than the recommended amount for your age group over an extended period of time—can increase stress and cause cognitive decline. Driving while fatigued is very dangerous. Working while fatigued can create safety issues in hazardous workplaces and costly errors even in relatively safe environments. Lack of sleep can also cause nervousness, depression, or mood swings. Many factors influence poor sleep, so for some sufferers, changing simple habits could help. According to Wayne Giles, M.D., Director of the CDC’s Division of Population Health, “Lifestyle changes such as going to bed at the same time each night; rising at the same time each morning; and turning off or removing televisions, computers, mobile devices from the bedroom, can help people get the healthy sleep they need.” Others may need to try alternative methods, including warm water immersion.