Lack of sleep has life-altering consequences.
Our 24/7 society longs for sleep, but we view it as expendable. We get by on too little, promising to catch up on weekends. But we never do. We stack up our sleep debt like an unlucky gambler. And the consequences are often life-altering.
Research shows that lack of sleep impairs memory, affects moods and undermines the ability to make quick, rationale decisions. Sleep dept hurts work performance and causes over 100,000 traffic crashes each year. Not to mention contributing to obesity, Type II diabetes and other serious health conditions. In fact, if you chronically deprive yourself of sleep—just an hour or two every night—ultimately you will be as sleep-deprived as someone who has been awake for 40 hours. That’s like being legally intoxicated.
This chart compares SLEEP DEBT with VIOLENCE, OBESITY, and MORTALITY information from the Center for Disease Control and Census Bureau data with self reported sleep quality (how many nights in the past month did you have difficulty sleeping?). The States are ranked in each category by number: from #50 = best to #1 = worst. The chart is sorted with the States with poorest sleep at the top. The highlighted numbers are the 25 lowest quality rankings. North Dakota has the best reported sleep and West Virginia the lowest quality.
Where does your State fit in?
But it’s not just a matter of getting enough sleep. According to the American Sleep Research Institute, the quality of our sleep is critical.
You can do something about this serious health hazard by making simple changes that have far-reaching results.
Click to read The iSleep Five Principals of Healthy Sleep.