Medical experts agree that most Americans are sleep deprived

Colorado Springs Business Journal, Nov 5, 2004 by Marylou Doehrman

Sleep needs are individual, Orr said. Each person needs enough sleep to allow them to be awake and alert during the daytime (without stimulants). You have to be the judge. He said a change of sleep habits on the weekends is a clue to whether the individual is sleeping enough during the week. Eighty percent sleep more on the weekends, Orr said.

Older adults tend to have more fragmented sleep times, Orr said. It's a myth that the older we get, the less sleep we need.

Although he, too, said there is no data measuring sleep habits to good health, Orr said a lack of sleep can cause health problems down the road.

And health problems, such as obesity, can cause sleep problems. And contrary to its immediate sedative effects, alcohol is not a sleep aid. Alcohol may put you to sleep, but after it is metabolized, the by-products wake you up and cause fitful sleep, Orr said. Studies indicate that solid foods like hamburgers interfere with sleep more than liquid foods like Jell-o or soup, he said. Regardless, a big meal right before bedtime is off limits for those who want unconscious peace as they nod off.

Do Type-A people sleep less? No, said Sarah Josephson, a lead sleep technician with Memorial Hospital's Sleep Disorder Center. Insomnia is not associated with personality types, she said. People today don't even know how fatigued and tired they really are, Josephson said.

But others, who suffer from sleep disorders such as restless leg syndrome, a movement disorder that causes a creepy crawly feeling in the limbs; narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that creates uncontrollable sleep attacks; or sleep apnea, a breathing disorder that causes sleep interruptions, cannot function without medical intervention.

The National Sleep Foundation reports that 18 million Americans have sleep apnea.

Bradd Hafer is a public relations associate with Memorial Hospital. He turned to the sleep center after his wife noticed that he stopped breathing during intervals of disturbed sleep. Hafer spent a night being monitored at the center and was eventually diagnosed with a milder form of sleep apnea. I would be sleeping - half in and half out - and then I'd get this feeling that I was drowning, Hafer said. It's like being in a state of paralysis, like being in a bubble and not being able to move. I never wanted to go to sleep because I didn't want to get those images. I was constantly tired.

Josephson said Hafer's sensations are real. Most sleep apnea disorders are connected to physical problems such as airway collapses, a deviated septum or sinus congestion, she said.

Can the sleepless in America play catch up on the weekends?

Josephson said that sleep debt is difficult to pay back, even on the weekends, if the debt is too big. People are perpetually taking out and putting back in, she said.

One of the sleep myths is that reading a book or watching television in bed is conducive to a sound sleep. Not true. Josephson said bedtime activities subconsciously and technically disrupt sleep.