Sleep Deprivation

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The real deal on how much sleep we need: Why what we think we need is different from what we really need

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The real deal on how much sleep we need: Why what we think we need is different from what we really need

It’s no secret that we all have our special preferences – just stand in line at the coffee shop and you’ll hear countless drink orders, from soy milk to vanilla flavoring or extra ice and cinnamon sprinkles. Knowing what we like and don’t like is part of what makes us human.

That doesn’t always make us right, though. Sometimes we don’t know ourselves as well as we’d like to think! Take sleep, for instance. Many of us think we have a handle on how much sleep we need. But scientific studies show otherwise. Over the long term, sleep deprivation and chronic lack of sleep actually make it harder for us to accurately gauge whether we are getting the appropriate amount of sleep.

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Why Your Corporate Health Management Strategy Should Include A Sleep Program

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Why Your Corporate Health Management Strategy Should Include A Sleep Program

If your inventory of the Monday morning conference table summons up images of bleary-eyed employees pouring a third cup of coffee to stay awake, or blotting away the cold symptoms they’ve been unable to kick, it’s probably time to rethink your organizations’s health management strategies. And it’s probably time to include a sleep program.

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Sleep Matters: Aetna Issues Wake Up Call in Sleep-Deprivation Campaign

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Scientists, psychologists and public-health advocates have been assailing Americans for years about not getting enough sleep and how it can hurt health, job performance and satisfaction with life.

Now Aetna is presenting its own message about the problem of sleep deprivation that, research shows, affects 40 percent of Americans. The giant health insurer has launched a campaign called “Sleep Matters” on digital and social channels to educate people about the acute and long-term dangers of not getting enough sleep.

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Feeling Anxious or Depressed? Sleep Deprivation May Be to Blame

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Feeling emotionally overwhelmed during times of stress and can't figure out why? Your current sleeping habits might offer some helpful insight.

According to findings in Sleep and Affect: Assessment, Theory and Clinical Implications, a new book from University of Arkansas psychology professor Matthew Feldner and National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder health science specialist Kimberly Babson, we are more likely to react emotionally to stressful situations when we are sleep deprived.

Previous research has linked sleep loss with anxiety and mood disorders, so this additional study corroborated those results as well as expanded symptom observation beyond anxiety and depression specifically.

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Insufficient Sleep May Raise Nighttime Blood Pressure

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Having prolonged periods of insufficient sleep is linked to significant increases in blood pressure during nighttime hours.

This was the finding of a small study from Mayo Clinic that was presented at the 64th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology in San Diego on Sunday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic in the US.