Sleep

Overview

When you have trouble sleeping, you have trouble doing almost everything else. Chronic conditions can get worse, your quality of life suffers, and even simple tasks, like driving, can become unsafe. The Centers for Disease Control even classifies insufficient sleep as a public health epidemic! 

An estimated 50 million to 70 million U.S. adults experience chronic sleep disorders or intermittent sleep problems. Sleep is just as important to your health as exercise and a healthy diet. Untreated, sleep disorders have been linked to stroke, high blood pressure, heart disease, and depression—and drowsy driving leads to at least 100,000 motor vehicle accidents each year. How do you know when your lack of ZZZs turns from frustrating to serious?

The Sleep Foundation recommends seeking medical help if:

• You regularly have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.
• You have been told that you snore, stop breathing, or gasp for breath in your sleep.
• You wake in the morning so tired you can’t function normally, and your sleepiness or fatigue lasts more than two or three weeks.
• Your legs move at night or you feel tingling, creeping, itching, or other strange feelings in your legs when lying down.