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Holidays Add To Sleep Need

By HOWARD COHEN

McClatchy Newspapers

December 18, 2007

Some 50 million to 70 million Americans have some sort of sleep disorder, be it apnea, insomnia or narcolepsy.

And this time of year — with shopping overload, overbooked calendars and end-of-the-year work demands — can be a sleeper's nightmare.

"There just does not seem to be enough time to shop, attend holiday parties, decorate the house, work and sleep," says Mary Battaglia, 42, a co-founder of the sleep aid company www.BedtimePlace.Com. "I try hard to get the right sleep because I know how important it is. But that does not always happen."

"Stress, no question, causes sleep disorders," says Jose Oliveros, a registered sleep technologist with North Shore Medical Center in Miami.

A 2005 National Sleep Foundation report found that 16 percent of 1,500 respondents said they slept fewer than six hours a night, up from 12 percent in a 1998 survey.

Adults should strive for eight hours; children and teens for nine hours. Only 26 percent reported getting the necessary eight hours, down from 35 percent.

The result: more illnesses, a weakened immune system, impaired judgment — not to mention crankiness, depression and other ailments. Recent studies have linked inadequate sleep with obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

"Nothing good happens under sleep deprivation," says Joyce Walsleben, an associate professor of medicine at NYU School of Medicine. "We're cutting sleep too short, we get irritable, get sick. Those two weeks leading into the holidays should be spent focusing on getting eight hours of sleep."

If not, problems can ensue, exacerbated by the season's higher stress levels and increased festivities. Consider:

Cases of "drowsy driving" — that nagging feeling of fighting sleep or, worse, falling asleep while driving — can be common at this time of year. Indeed, 20 percent of all serious car crash injuries are associated with driver sleepiness, according to a 2006 Institute of Medicine report.

"Factors that take place during this time of year make us more concerned," says Darrel Drobnich, chief executive of the National Sleep Foundation. "College kids are doing finals and packing and staying up late to drive long distances to be with family for the holidays. Families are staying up late to pack and head out early in the morning to visit grandma and grandpa several states away... Office parties. Travel. People are stressed out doing Christmas shopping. It can be a hectic time of year."

The 2005 foundation poll found that 61 percent of respondents reported that they had driven while drowsy, a 14 percent increase over the previous year.

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