I was quite surprised when I read the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) statement, “the importance of chronic sleep insufficiency is under-recognized as a public health problem, despite being associated with numerous physical and mental health problems, injury, loss of productivity, and mortality.”  

I knew it was a landmark moment when I further read, “health care providers should consider adding an assessment of chronic rest or sleep insufficiency to routine office visits so they can make needed interventions or referrals to sleep specialists.” 

It is one thing for us at Philips to repeat this message, but this is the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention! 

Key findings

At the end of October, the CDC released the first-ever government study to measure sleeplessness on a state-by-state basis, a milestone in accurately capturing the magnitude of chronic sleep insufficiency and adequately recognizing it as a public health problem nationwide.

An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans chronically suffer from a disorder of sleep or wakefulness, including sleep apnea, but many of these instances have been under-reported and under-treated in the past.   According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, but almost 30% of adults report sleeping less than seven hours per night. 

This new information released by the CDC is based on a self-reported survey of over 400,000 people in 2008. Key findings include: 

• Over 60% (60.2%) of individuals report insufficient sleep or rest at some point in the last 30 days.
• More than 11% of respondents indicated insufficient rest or sleep every day of the previous third days
• Females (12.4%) were more likely than males (9.9%) to report insufficient sleep or rest
• Non-Hispanic blacks (13.3%) were more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to report insufficient rest or sleep
• State estimates of 30 days of insufficient rest or sleep ranged from 7.4% in North Dakota to 19.3% in West Virginia

FIGURE.  Age-adjusted percentage of adults who reported 30 days of insufficient rest or sleep during the  preceding 30 days. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United States, 2008

A global problem

The issue of chronic sleeplessness is a global problem.  Earlier this year, Philips conducted an international survey across England, Germany, Japan, USA, and the Netherlands. The results stressed the perils of sleep deprivation, especially in the workplace. The poll suggested that the average manager gets 19% less than the recommended eight hours of sleep a night and that 6.2 days a year were impacted by sleep, costing companies millions of dollars around the world.

But a lack of sleep is not just detrimental to workplace productivity and bottom lines. It is just as essential to health and well-being as diet and exercise, and a lack of sleep can lead to physical and mental health problems, injury, and even mortality.

So Philips applauds the CDC’s efforts to raise awareness around the dangers of sleep deprivation, and we fully support the CDC’s recommendation that health care providers consider adding an assessment of sleep insufficiency to routine office visits.  

Eric