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Sleep Deprivation: An Emerging National Crisis
According to one February, 1998 Life Magazine
article , the sleep disorder problem is addressed as an emerging
national crisis:
We can't get to sleep, we can't stay asleep. We kick our legs
and grind our teeth. We are sleepless babies, heavy-lidded teenagers,
dangerously impaired night-shift workers. According to two recent
polls and a congressional study, more than 20 million of us suffer
from apnea or narcolepsy - serious, sometimes fatal, sleep-related
diseases. An additional 50 million are afflicted by one of 80
other sleep syndromes. We are a nation of zombies-stressed, depressed,
sometimes, even suicidal for lack of sleep.
*More Sleep Facts:
· Up to 15% of people “sleep walk”
· Approximately 15% of people have restless leg syndrome
· Vehicular crashes are the third leading cause of death
and injury in the
United States, and up to 20% of them are sleep related
· Untreated sleep apnea causes 500,000 motor vehicle crashes
annually
· One in 20 men have sleep apnea
· Seizures occur more commonly during sleep than during
waking hours
· Many tranquilizers actually decrease deeper stages of
sleep that are
· Required for the restoration and fresh feeling in the morning
· Jet Lag is worse when traveling toward the East
· Sleep loss of four hours is equivalent to being drunk
with a blood alcohol
Level of 0.1%
· One-third of young adults are pathologically sleepy during
the day
*Sleep Facts courtesy of the Sleep Disorders Center at Trinitas
Hospital of Elizabeth, New Jersey.
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