http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010327/ts/health_sleep_dc.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans are suffering from a serious sleep deficit while also cutting back on leisure activities and sex as they spend more time at work, the National Sleep Foundation said on Tuesday.
Nearly two-thirds of American adults do not get the nightly eight hours of sleep recommended for good health and optimum performance, the foundation's annual poll showed.
``Sleep is a health, safety and performance necessity, not a luxury and Americans are not getting enough of it,'' Ronald Krall, the foundation's president, told a news conference.
``There is an epidemic of sleepiness in our society,'' added James Walsh, the foundation's vice president.
Of 1,004 adults questioned, 43 percent reported sleeping less today than they did five years ago and 40 percent said they worked longer hours. The poll, conducted by WB&A Market Research, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.
``There is a direct relationship between hours worked and its negative impact on sleep ... and the effects of sleep deprivation are cumulative,'' Walsh said.
Work was the only activity to which more people said they devoted longer hours than they did five years ago. About four in ten people said they worked at least a 50-hour week.
More interviewees said they had less sex now than in 1996. One third had sex less than once a week and were more sleepy than those having sex two or three times a week.
``People suffering from sleep disorders ... they are going to be de-energized, they are not going to feel any initiative and that's going to translate to a person's sex life,'' the sleep foundation's Richard Gelula told Reuters. [snip]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010327/ts/health_sleep_dc.html
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