NEW YORK.— Do you have trouble sleeping during the week and catching up on the weekend? Do you toss and turn all night and start the day foggy? Do you take a nap? Or are you among the lucky people who have no problem getting enough sleep?
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University report that most people fit one of these four descriptions, and the way they sleep is a predictor of their long-term health, HealthDay News reports.
“Sleep is an everyday behavior. Sleep is also modifiable,” said lead researcher Soomi Lee, director of the Sleep, Stress and Health (Stealth) Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. “Better sleep habits can make many significant differences, from improving social relationships and work performance to promoting long-term healthy behaviors and healthy aging.”
His team looked at data from more than 3,600 participants in the American Midlife Study. The researchers looked at the participants’ self-reported sleep habits. That included how long they slept, whether they were satisfied with their sleep, their daytime alertness and their chronic health conditions.
More than half of the participants were identified as insomniac sleepers, meaning they struggled to fall asleep and then slept only a little. Over a 10-year period, this sleep style was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of heart disease, diabetes, depression, and other chronic conditions.
The study included mainly healthy adults, so it may not represent the entire population. Still, most participants didn’t have the best sleeping habits. Most were sleeping or napping with insomnia, people who mostly sleep well but often enjoy a short nap.
And people in these two groups were less likely to change their sleep habits over time, the study found.
“These results may suggest that it is very difficult to change our sleep habits because sleep health is integrated into our overall lifestyle,” Lee said in a university news release. “It could also suggest that people still don’t know about the importance of their sleep and about sleep health behaviors.”
He noted that educating people about good sleep health is imperative. “There are sleep hygiene behaviors people could adopt to improve their sleep, such as not using cell phones in bed, exercising regularly, and avoiding caffeine in the late afternoon.”
Although age seemed to play little role in sleep habits, the researchers found that napping was common among older adults and retirees. Participants with less education and those on the verge of unemployment were more likely to sleep with insomnia.
Lee said this suggests that social and neighborhood influences, such as financial stress and access to health resources, could have a significant effect on sleep habits.
The result: Interventions to promote better sleep are much needed, the researchers concluded. Their identification of different sleep problems suggests that interventions can be targeted based on factors such as chronic disease risk and economic vulnerability.
The findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
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2024-04-18 02:51:36