A good night's sleep is crucial to your health
Lifestyle choices are critically important for long-term good health. We often hear about diet, exercise and stress reduction as being the key to health. However, there is one lifestyle choice that most Americans ignore and yet is indispensable. It is sleep.
Without a good night sleep, the body does not heal. You can eat organic food, exercise every day and reduce all of your stress, yet without a good night's sleep you are at an increased risk of all major illnesses.
A chronic lack of sleep increases the risk for almost all medical conditions. High blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disease and chronic pain syndromes are all higher in those who don't get a good night's sleep. And a good night's sleep is not just eight hours at any time. The best eight hours are between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
We know that night shift work is associated with poor sleep. Night shift workers are at increased risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes and other medical conditions, all related to sleep.
In a recent Taiwanese medical study, 84,996 adult patients were studied to see the relationship between sleep and autoimmune diseases. The study group was divided into two groups, one getting a good night's sleep and the other one not getting a good night's sleep. The autoimmune diseases that were evaluated were rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome and systemic sclerosis.
Some believe that 50 million Americans have an autoimmune disease. This is more than those diagnosed with cancer and heart disease combined. Some statistics have estimated that the annual cost of autoimmune disease is a staggering $100 billion per year.
The recent Taiwanese study found that those individuals who were unable to get a solid night's sleep had a significantly increased risk of developing autoimmune disease. For most of the autoimmune diseases studied, the increased risk of developing autoimmune disease was 1.5 to 2 times greater in those individuals not getting a good night's sleep. Simply getting a good night's sleep would reduce the medical cost of autoimmune disease by about 50 percent.
Over the past 50 years, the average night's sleep has decreased from 7.9 hours to 6.8 hours. This is a significant reduction in sleep considering that about 30 percent of Americans are getting less than 6.8 hours of sleep per night. In addition this is not taking into account poor quality sleep.
There are many reasons for this level of sleep deprivation. Among them are increasing workloads, TV, night shift work, the Internet, as well as stress and even perhaps medications. The bottom line is that Americans are not getting enough good quality sleep and it is impacting our health.
One rather disturbing statistic is that sleep deprivation among children and teenagers is dramatically increasing.
Sleep is the one indispensable factor for good health. No one is immune. A good night's sleep means getting to bed at about 10-10:30 in the evening and waking up at about 6-6:30 in the morning. Better health is the reward.
• Patrick B. Massey, MD, PH.D., is medical director for complementary and alternative medicine at Alexian Brothers Hospital Network and president of ALT-MED Medical and Physical Therapy, 1544 Nerge Road, Elk Grove Village. His website is www.alt-med.org.