Sleep Health Awareness with Julie Flygare
NarcolespyNotAlone.com · Project Sleep 2015 Online Chat (YouTube)
Sources: Project-Sleep.com, SleepFoundation.org
Wide Awake And Dreaming: A Memoir Of Narcolepsy (which won an award from the San Francisco Book Festival) can be ordered from Amazon by clicking here or on the book cover below.
Sleep loss causes issues with memory, attention, mood regulation, complex thought, motor responses to stimuli, and performance at work or school. Sleep loss may also disrupt regulation of core body temperature and increase the risk of various physical and mental disorders.
Short and long sleep duration is associated with up to a two-fold increased risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, incident cardiovascular disease, stroke, depression, substance abuse, and increased death rates in multiple studies. In addition, an estimated 100,000 motor vehicle accidents each year are believed to be the result of drivers’ drowsiness or fatigue behind the wheel.
Nearly 70 percent of adults report insufficient sleep or rest at least once a month and 11 percent report insufficient sleep every day of the month. Nearly 70 percent of high school adolescents sleep less than the recommended 8-9 hours a night (associated with suicide risk, obesity, depression, mood problems, low grades, and delinquent behavior).The National Sleep Foundation now recommends:
- Newborns (0-3 months): Sleep range narrowed to 14-17 hours each day
- Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range widened two hours to 12-15 hours
- Toddlers (1-2 years): Sleep range widened by one hour to 11-14 hours
- Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range widened by one hour to 10-13 hours
- School age children (6-13): Sleep range widened by one hour to 9-11 hours
- Teenagers (14-17): Sleep range widened by one hour to 8-10 hours
- Younger adults (18-25): Sleep remains 7-9 hours
- Adults (26-64): Sleep range remains 7-9 hours
- Older adults (65+): Sleep remains 7-8 hours