Getting a good night's sleep

Sleep: Fact or Fiction?

How much do you know about sleep disorders? Review these statements and learn which are true and which are not.

Health problems have no relation to the amount and quality of a person’s sleep.

Fiction: More and more scientific studies are showing correlations between poor quality sleep and/or insufficient sleep with a variety of diseases, including hypertension, diabetes and depression. For example, insufficient sleep can impair the body’s ability to use insulin, which can lead to the development of more severe diabetes. Patients with poorly controlled diabetes and sleep apnea have improvement of diabetic glucose control when treated for sleep apnea. This is also found in patients with hypertension and sleep apnea. When the sleep apnea is treated, the blood pressure also improves. In addition, too little sleep may decrease growth hormone secretion, which has been linked to obesity.

Older people need less sleep.

Fiction: The average adult needs a total sleep time of seven to nine hours per day. While sleep patterns usually change as we age, the amount of sleep we generally need does not. Older people may sleep less at night due, in part, to frequent night waking, but their need for sleep is no less than that of younger adults.

Snoring can be harmful.

Fact: Snoring can be a sign of sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that is associated with other medical problems such as cardiovascular disease. Sleep apnea is characterized by episodes of reduced or no airflow throughout the night. People with sleep apnea may remember waking up frequently during the night gasping for breath.

You can “cheat” on the amount of sleep you get.

Fiction: Sleep experts say that most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night for optimal health. Getting fewer hours of sleep will eventually need to be replenished with additional sleep in the next few nights. Our body does not seem to get used to less sleep than it needs.

Teens need more sleep than adults.

Fact: Teens need at least 8.5 – 9.25 hours of sleep each night, compared to an average of seven to nine hours each night for most adults. The internal biological clocks of teenagers can keep them awake later in the evening and can interfere with waking up in the morning.

Insomnia is characterized only by difficulty falling asleep.

Fiction: One or more of the following four symptoms are usually associated with insomnia:

• Difficulty falling asleep.
• Waking up too early and not being able to get back to sleep.
• Frequent awakenings.
• Waking up feeling unrefreshed.

Daytime sleepiness means a person is not getting enough sleep.

Fiction: While excessive daytime sleepiness often occurs if you don’t get enough sleep, it can also occur even after a good night’s sleep. Such sleepiness can be a sign of an underlying medical condition or sleep disorder such as narcolepsy or sleep apnea.

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