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Sleep disorders

Too little sleep poses long-term health risks

Karen Weintraub
Special for USA TODAY
A man turns off an alarm clock.

We all know what it's like to get a lousy or short night of sleep: Tempers shorten, snacks become more tempting, attention gets harder to sustain.

Researchers are just beginning to understand the long-term consequences of a lifetime of those rough mornings — and it doesn't look good.

Poor sleep has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity and depression. Newer research has drawn connections between bad sleep and Alzheimer's. A study released last year showed that the better 700 participants slept, the less likely they were to develop Alzheimer's over the next 3.5 years.

Roughly 40% of American adults and 70% of teens say they don't get enough sleep. America's sleep problems are the focus of Sleepless in America , which will air Nov. 30 on the National Geographic Channel. It was produced by the channel in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and other groups that have expertise in the field.

Scientists don't understand exactly why we sleep, but every creature does it, so "that tells you there's something really profoundly necessary" about it, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said at the premiere of the show this month.

A growing body of research suggests that during sleep, the brain appears to flush out harmful chemicals such as the beta amyloid that builds up in Alzheimer's.

"The brain requires a kind of cleanup process that we're beginning to glimpse," Collins said. "Without taking out the trash, you're going to find that the next day, your brain is not functioning at its best."

Other recent research has delved into the physiological problems of shift work.

In a study published in November, Charles Czeisler and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School found extremely high rates of sleep disorders among firefighters, many of whom keep crazy schedules to accommodate shift work.

Of 7,000 firefighters from across the country, 37% were found to have a sleep disorder, mostly sleep apnea (in which breathing stops repeatedly during sleep), insomnia or restless leg syndrome. Those with a sleep disorder — 80% of whom didn't know they had a problem — were more likely to have been in a car crash and to have heart disease, diabetes, depression or anxiety, according to the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Bad sleep affects us in short-term ways as well. A study published in November by Christopher Barnes and his colleagues at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business shows bosses are more likely to be jerks — and turn off their workers — when they've had a lousy night of sleep.

"Leaders often end up unintentionally sabotaging the productivity of their own work groups," Barnes said.

Lack of sleep clearly undermines diets. In one brain scan study published in September, volunteers were more likely to respond to images of high-calorie "comfort food" if they were tired.

"The emotional response to food is overactive when you're sleep-deprived," said Orfeu Buxton, a sleep specialist at Pennsylvania State University.

A couple lie in bed but not necessarily asleep.

Usually the cost of lost sleep is slow and relatively silent. Not in transportation, where a few seconds of nodding off can end lives, said Mark Rosekind, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board and a psychologist who has spent his career studying the consequences of exhaustion on performance. At the premiere, Rosekind challenged scientists to develop a "fatiguealyzer" to detect exhaustion, in much the same way that a breathalyzer detects alcohol.

"If we want to thrive," he said, "we have to start valuing sleep."

Here are five tips for getting a good night's sleep:

1. Prioritize adequate sleep. Most adults need seven or eight hours of sleep a night; performance starts to fall off precipitously at six hours. Teens need at least nine hours a night.

2. Go to bed at a consistent time every night. Consider setting an alarm to help you go to bed early enough to get adequate rest.

3. Talk to your doctor if you think you have a sleep disorder, such as insomnia, apnea or restless leg syndrome. Behavioral changes have been shown to be equally or more effective than medication in treating insomnia over the long term.

4.Exercise to help improve sleep, and avoid alcohol and caffeine — especially after noon — because they can undermine a good night's sleep.

5.Taper off electronics at least an hour before bedtime. The blue light in screens mimics the early morning sun and can disrupt the body's cues for sleep.

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