- SUNDAY, June 8 (HealthDay News) — The pace of life gets faster
and faster, and people try to cram more and more into every minute of the
day.

As things get more hectic, sleep tends to get short shrift. It's seen
as wasted time, lost forever.

“For healthy people, there's a big temptation to voluntarily restrict
sleep, to stay up an hour or two or get up an hour or two earlier,” said
Dr. Greg Belenky, director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at
Washington State University Spokane.

“But you're really reducing your productivity and exposing yourself to
risk,” Belenky added.

That's a message doctors are trying to spread to Americans, including
the estimated 40 million people who struggle with some type of sleep
disorder each year.

Before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1880, people slept an
average of 10 hours a night. These days, Americans average 6.9 hours of
sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours a night on weekends, according to the
National Sleep Foundation.

“The group of people getting optimal sleep is getting smaller and
smaller,” said Dr. Chris Drake, senior scientist at the Henry Ford
Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center in Detroit. “When a person's
sleep drops to six hours or less, that's when a lot of things become very
problematic.”

While experts recommend seven to eight hours of sleep each night, the
amount needed for an individual can vary.

But lack of sleep affects a person in one of two ways, Belenky said.
First, sleeplessness influences the day-to-day performance of tasks.

“The performance effects are seen immediately,” he said. “You
short-change yourself of sleep, and you see the effects immediately. You
can make a bad decision. You can miss something. Have a moment's
inattention, and you're off the road.”

The longer-term effects of sleep deprivation involve a person's health.
Doctors have linked lack of sleep to weight gain, diabetes, high blood
pressure, heart problems, depression and substance abuse.

“Hormones that process appetite begin to get disorganized,” said Drake,
who's also an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral
neuroscience at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. There's a
decrease in the amount of leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone, when a
person gets too little sleep. At the same time, ghrelin — a hormone that
stimulates appetite — increases with a lack of sleep.

Too little sleep also interferes with the body's ability to regulate
glucose and can cause inflammation leading to heart problems and a rise in
blood pressure. “There's a stress response to being in a sleep loss,”
Belenky said.

The types of people not getting enough sleep also break down into two
groups. First, there are those who make the conscious choice to go without
enough sleep.

“It's sort of part of the culture,” Belenky said. “People pride
themselves on getting little sleep. You'll hear people bragging, 'I only
need six hours a night.' So there's a macho element here.”

On the other hand, there are people who are suffering from sleep
disorders. These disorders include:

• Insomnia, an inability to go to sleep or stay asleep.
• Sleep apnea, or breathing interruptions during sleep that cause people
  to wake up repeatedly.
• Restless legs syndrome, a tingling or prickly sensation in the legs
  that causes a person to need to move them, interrupting sleep.

Someone suffering from any of these problems should visit their doctor
or see a sleep specialist, Belenky said.

Sleep apnea, the most prevalent sleep disorder, can have particularly
serious long-term effects if left untreated. “You're waking up out of
sleep to breathe. You can't sleep and breathe at the same time,” Drake
said. “It's a risk factor for developing major cardiovascular health
effects.”

Some people who have trouble sleeping will resort to mild sedatives
like Ambien and Lunesta.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently asked the makers of
these sedative-hypnotic drugs to strengthen their warning labels. This
action followed reports of dangerous allergic reactions, as well as a host
of bizarre behavioral side effects that include sleep-driving, making
phone calls, and preparing and eating food or having sex while asleep.

Drake and Belenky both consider sleeping pills to be fine for the short
term if taken properly.

“Sleeping pills are a temporary solution,” Belenky said. “If you're
upset about something or have situational insomnia, or you're trying to
sleep at the wrong time of day because you've traveled across time zones,
they are effective.”

But, both doctors noted the pills will do nothing to help a chronic
sleep problem. “They don't address the pathology of their sleeplessness,”
Drake said.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health offers these tips for getting a
good night's sleep:

• Stick to a regular sleep schedule.
• Avoid exercising closer than five or six hours before bedtime.
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol before bed.
• Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.
• Don't take naps after 3 p.m.
• Relax before bed, taking time to unwind with a hot bath, a good book
  or soothing music.
• If you're still awake after more than 20 minutes in bed, get up and do
  something relaxing until you feel sleepy. Anxiety over not being able to
  sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.

More information

To learn more, visit the National Sleep
Foundation.