Recent surveys have found that about two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and an estimated 63 percent don't get the recommended eight hours of sleep per night.
The Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital is investigating whether improving sleep in older people with insomnia can improve their health. "That's really where the future is," said Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the center.
Another planned study will enroll people who are overweight and see if getting them to sleep better makes it easier for them to lose weight.
"Potentially, sleep will be a modifiable risk for obesity," Zee said.
Even though the data are not yet in, Zee said she tells her patients they need at least seven hours of sleep a night, on average, to stay healthy.
Lack of sleep has been associated with cognitive problems, diabetes and high blood pressure, in addition to obesity.
As evidence mounts that sleep is important for health, another body of research suggests that people are getting a lot less sleep than they need.
A study published in this month's American Journal of Epidemiology found that middle-age men and women sleep much less than they should and even less than they think they do.
The study, carried out jointly with researchers from Northwestern, also found that blacks sleep less than whites, men sleep less than women, and the poor sleep less than the wealthy.
The study combined sleep diaries with wrist actigraphy, which uses a motion sensor to measure when people go to bed and when they fall asleep. The researchers found people spent an average of 7.5 hours in bed, but only 6.1 hours sleeping. The average for black men was only 5.1 hours.
Source: Chicago Tribune. Powered by Yellowbrix.
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