Coping With Excessive Sleepiness
This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive
What's Causing Your Sleepiness?
Look around you: the guy nodding off on the bus, the co-worker snoozing during a dull presentation, the people with heavy eyelids lined up at the coffee shop in mid-afternoon. Like them, your job may be leaving you sleep deprived -- and you may not even realize it.
Excessive sleepiness can have serious consequences. You could doze off while waiting at a red light, for example. And not getting good sleep has been associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and weight gain.
3 Real Women With 3 Real Sleep Problems
You take your shut-eye for granted, until you find yourself staring at the bedroom ceiling at 2:33 a.m. one predawn too many. And then -- finally -- it hits you: Could this be more than an off night? Could you have a sleep problem? If you do, getting to the bottom of the problem is important. Not catching enough ZZZs regularly can leave you feeling drained, depressed, anxious, stressed, and generally miserable. And it’s a vicious circle: The more stressed you are about being exhausted, the...
Read the 3 Real Women With 3 Real Sleep Problems article > >
"I do think that perhaps the No. 1 sleep problem in America is willful sleep limitation. People are working too hard and purposely limit themselves to six hours when they should be getting seven or eight," says Lisa Shives, MD, founder of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Evanston, Ill., and a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Sleepiness appears to be on the rise, according to the National Sleep Foundation. In its 2009 Sleep in America poll, 20% of Americans reported that they averaged fewer than six hours of sleep per night. That’s compared to 13% in 2001.
What Causes Sleepiness?
Sleep problems stem from multiple causes: jet lag, working graveyard or rotating shifts that go against the body's natural sleep rhythms, or skimping on sleep in order to stay on top of a full-throttle schedule.
While many of us are tired from skimping on sleep, others with sleep problems may have bona fide sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, or narcolepsy. People who work graveyard or rotating shifts may have shift work sleep disorder, marked by excessive sleepiness during night work and insomnia when they try to sleep during the daytime.
Regardless of the cause, excessive sleepiness "is becoming more of a legitimate complaint," both among patients and doctors, says David G. Davila, MD, a National Sleep Foundation spokesman and board member who practices sleep medicine in Little Rock, Ark. He sees men and women who can't muster enough alertness to finish mental tasks or who struggle to stay awake while driving -- and many who doze off in his waiting room.
Some try to cope with excessive sleepiness through caffeine or stimulants, he says. "They'll come in actually complaining of insomnia because they're at Starbucks too much, and they're piling on the caffeine too late in the day. They're really responding to sleepiness, but then they end up getting secondary insomnia related to the caffeine."
What's Wrong With Poor Sleep?
Most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep per night, although some people need more or less sleep time to be adequately rested.
Sleep woes -- not getting enough sleep or poor quality of sleep -- can have serious consequences. "Not having enough good sleep is linked to the major health problems of our time: hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, weight gain, and dementia," Shives says.
Sleepiness: Health Risks
Crazy Hours on the Job?
Is Sleepiness Hurting You?
Health Solutions From Our Sponsors
©2005-2012 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.