Make Time to Sleep
The pace of modern American society seems to be leading to ever-decreasing hours of sleep. Many people try to use caffeine as a substitute for the hours of lost sleep, but the evidence is mounting that this is a bad trade-off. According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, sleep deprivation is known to cause chronic drowsiness, cognitive difficulty, weight gain, depression, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It has recently been reported that lost sleep may be also contributing to high blood pressure (also called hypertension) in many people. A 2006 Columbia University medical study found that middle-aged adults who sleep five hours or less per night may be at greater risk for hypertension than those who sleep a full seven to eight hours.
Sleep's Crucial Benefits
One of sleep's most beneficial effects is that it slows down the heart rate and lowers blood pressure. This benefit is only realized, however, during sleep periods of greater than five hours. According to Columbia faculty member Dr. James E. Gangwisch, an average of 12 percent of middle-aged people who get seven to eight hours of sleep each night will develop high blood pressure, while the figure is twice as high for those who slept five hours or less (the study also accounted for a host of unrelated behavioral, health and demographic factors, which were eliminated through controls). Secondary effects of shorter sleep included decreased exercise, depression and higher body fat. The Columbia researchers did not observe a comparable set of statistics for people over 60, although they conceded that fewer people with hypertension survive far into their sixties, possibly shaping the results by allowing study only of mostly healthier individuals in that age group.
The Evidence Mounts
Continuing research since 2006 has only confirmed the earlier findings. A study published in 2009 by the Archives of Internal Medicine reported that each hour of missed sleep on average per night raised the likelihood of developing hypertension by 37 percent. The researchers allowed that the higher incidence of diabetes and obesity due to lack of sleep may contribute to the observed results. It has become increasingly clear that even people who claim to be fully rested after only a short sleep period may be fooling themselves. The implications of long-term habits of getting insufficient sleep have now extended to a variety of serious, life-threatening conditions. As a result, it may become an inescapable conclusion that the length and quality of sleep profoundly affects human longevity as well.
