Not getting enough sleep? Here’s how researchers say it affects your health

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• John Yang:

  Getting a good night's sleep is easier said than done. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 50 to 70 million Americans struggle with chronic sleep disorders. We all have a 24-hour internal clock in our brains a circadian rhythm. It regulates when we feel alert and when we feel sleepy. It also fosters other physical mental and behavioral changes, for example, what time of day you'll have the quickest reaction time, or the most muscle strength, or when the body releases melatonin to prepare for sleep.

  New research suggests that this near musical timing of the human body is crucial. Dr. Jennifer Martin is a professor at the UCLA Medical School and president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Dr. Martin, what are we learning? Or what have we learned? Or what are we learning now about the relationship between sleep and overall health?

  Dr. Jennifer Martin, American Academy of Sleep Medicine: Well, it turns out that just about any aspect of health that we might consider is affected by how we sleep, how healthy our heart is, our mental health, our physical well-being or ability to manage our weight and make healthy food choices, our immune system, our brain, as science evolves, we're just learning more and more about why those changes are occurring. And the promise really, that a good night's sleep can help us stay healthy and well, and live a good long life.

• John Yang:

  And it sounds like it's not just short term, that if you get a good night's sleep, you're going to feel better next day, and that in the short term, but also in the long term, there are health benefits?

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  Chronically, if someone isn't getting enough sleep, we see permanent changes in things like their metabolism, their blood pressure. And again, most of these things are reversible if you take care of your sleep over time, but a lot of folks because of their work or personal life commitments, you know, insufficient or poor sleep becomes a chronic problem.

• John Yang:

  We talked about their circadian rhythm, sort of regulating sleep and an alertness. How do you explain that there are people who do better in the morning than others? There are people who do better at night than others. Is that genetic is that environmental?

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  Some really smart scientists started noticing that night owls tend to be in in the same family and mourning people tend to be in the same family. So this is very much genetically determined. Most people are somewhere in the middle. So their internal clock is a little bit flexible. But there is a small percentage of people who are at the extremes of no matter what they do, they really can't shift the timing of their sleep earlier or later, no matter how hard they try.

• John Yang:

  We talked earlier about the people who have chronic sleep disorders, what are the most common and also has it changed over time?

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  Yes, so the two most common sleep disorders in the United States right now are obstructive sleep apnea, which is a disorder where people have a hard time breathing while they're asleep. And the rates of sleep apnea very closely parallels rates of people being overweight or obese in the United States. That's a major cause of obstructive sleep apnea.

  The second most common sleep disorder is insomnia disorder. So that's a condition where people have a hard time sleeping, more nights than not this goes on for months or years. And no matter what they do, no matter how hard they try, they just can't sleep well or sleep enough.

• John Yang:

  Do you see disparities over these sleep disorders? by gender, by race by socioeconomic status?

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  Yes, there are systematic differences. So, obstructive sleep apnea is more common in men than in women. And as women get older, it's more common in older women than younger women. Insomnia disorder is more common in women than men.

  And both of these sleep disorders are more common in communities that experience socio economic disparities in low income communities. Communities, from a number of racial and ethnic minority groups also experienced higher rates of both insomnia and sleep apnea.

• John Yang:

  If someone were to come to you and say that they have trouble getting a good night's sleep, what's your advice?

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  Well, there are a few basic things for somebody who's struggling, the most important thing is to reach out to a health care provider, explain what's going on and ask for help. I think for most people, a few basic, healthy sleep habits can be really important. Number one, just making sleep a priority. We all think about diet and exercise is important things we do to maintain our health. I think sleep should be right up there with those two.

• John Yang:

  Are there things that can be done on a government bases to help people get better sleep?

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  One is I live in the state of California, which has a law requiring high schools to start at 8:30 or later, Florida just passed a very similar law. And this really honors what happens to that circadian rhythm for teenagers, which is that they biologically shift to become more night owls.

  So, I recently read something that was making the comment that asking a teenager to be at school at 7:00 the morning is like asking their teacher to show up at 4:30. There's another kind of interesting debate going on right now about Daylight Savings Time.

  Daylight Savings Time is a great name, but the truth is it doesn't change the sun going up and down on the horizon. It just changes the clock on the wall. And we know that in terms of health benefits, standard time is more aligned with our internal clocks.

• John Yang:

  You mentioned students and schools starting times. What about in adults, workers who have to work the overnight shift?

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  Yes, I see a fair number of patients who struggle because even when they come home at the end of their shift, they have a hard time sleeping during the day because again, we are naturally built. Our circadian clock tells us to be awake when the sun is out.

  So when I work with folks who have to work overnight shifts, we try really hard to make sure we can protect their sleep time during the day and come up with a plan so that they don't feel like they have constant jetlag between the days that they're working in the days that they're not.

• John Yang:

  Dr. Jennifer Martin from the UCLA Medical School. Thank you very much.

• Dr. Jennifer Martin:

  Thank you very much for your interest.