Captured from “Sleepless in America,” a National Geographic channel documentary. (Watch at www.mhealthtalk.com/sleepless-in-america/)

1. INTELLIGENT SLEEP
Wayne Caswell
Founding Editor, Modern Health Talk
waynecaswell@mHealthTalk.com
Sleep Statistics from “Sleepless in America,” a National Geographic channel
documentary. (Watch at www.mhealthtalk.com/sleepless-in-america/)
How much sleep do we Need?
 Every species studied to date (plant or animal) needs sleep.
 Human Infants need 16 hours/day
 Children ages 5-12 need 10-11 hours/night
 Teens need 8-10 hours
 Adults need 7-9 hours
 Seniors need 6-8 hours
How much sleep do we Get?
 2 hours — Americans sleep this much less than we did 150 years ago.
 40% of all adults sleep less than 7 hours. (Actually most sleep less than 7 hrs Mon-Fri.)
 >40% of night shift workers sleep less than 6 hours.
 30% of all adult workers get less than 6 hours. (CDC, 2012)
 70% of adolescents are sleep deprived.
Short Sleep is a KILLER
 20% more likely to Die in 20 years
 27% higher risk of Obesity
 Hungrier: high-calorie, high-carb
 Increased appetite for fatty foods 33%
 500 more calories/day consumed (like adding 1 cheese burger/day to your diet)
 30-40% reduced Glucose Metabolism
 62% higher risk of Breast Cancer
 48% higher risk of Heart Disease
 5 times higher risk of Diabetes
 >29M Americans have diabetes.
 >79M more have pre-diabetes.
 3 times higher risk of catching a Cold due to Impaired Immunity
 4 times higher risk of Stroke
 5 times higher risk of developing Depression
 Brain Tissue loss and failure to clear out amyloid plaques & toxins associated with
Alzheimer’s

2. Drowsy Driving is a KILLER
 20% of Car Accidents (>100,000/year)
 1,500 Deaths
 71,000 Injuries
 $12.5 billion Monetary Loss
 32% reduced Alertness with 1.5 less sleep
 Like driving Drunk (<5 hours sleep as bad as 5% blood-alcohol)
Benefits of Good Sleep (messages for women)
 Look Better: We all need our Beauty Sleep
 Overall Appearance: less attractive, sad looking
 Weight: Lose 14.3 lbs/yr with 1 hour more sleep
 Health: Live longer & better
 School: Develop higher IQ, get better grades
 Family: Improved relationships & sex
Benefits of Good Sleep (messages for men)
 Improved: attention, creativity, decision-making, focus, mood, reaction & recovery
times, working memory, and more
 Resulting in: more raises & promotions, earning capacity, net worth
 11% quicker recovery from Exhaustion (better workouts)
 17% improved Reaction Times off the block (swimming)
 3% improved Reaction Times (basketball)
 0.1 second faster 40-yard dash (football)
 42% boost in Hitting Accuracy (tennis)
 3x fewer lapses in attention (baseball)
 Naps among military pilots improved performance of 34% and alertness 100% (NASA)
Other Sleep Stats
 Corporate productivity: $63 billion/year lost from sleep deprivation (Harvard Health
News, 2011)
 Disasters: Experts now believe sleep deprivation played a role in:
 the Exxon Valdez oil spill,
 Staten Island Ferry crash, and
 Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, among others.
 among other disasters.
 Mood & Emotion: 60% more reactive
 Medical errors: increase dramatically with long hours.
 Students: later start times result in higher test scores, less depression, and 70% fewer
car crashes.
 Only about 50% of people who try a CPAP machine for apnea continue to use it
regularly.
 60M sleep medications were prescribed by US physicians in 2011.