Public Health Message: More of the Message

Abstract

Public health studies have identified some 50-70 million Americans chronically suffer from a sleep disorder that adversely affects their functioning [1]. Added to this listing, are the results from Department of Transportation identifying some 20% of car crash injuries in the general population result from sleep deprivation effects on attention. A comprehensive report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies was published in 2006 that identified the impact of driver sleepiness, medical costs from doctor visits/hospital services/ prescription/OTC medicines [2]. The response was five-fold to this report: develop more technologies to detect sleepiness early, strengthen research, establish interdisciplinary sleep programs in Academic Health Centers, and establish a National Somnology of Sleep Medicine Research and Clinical Network. Some results of this lead to more finite identification of sleep insufficiency [1]. A 2014 Center for Disease Control report identified cognitive impairments in concentration (e.g., concentrating on two things, remembering things). Significant (35%) numbers of adults reported falling asleep unintentionally during the day. Sleep insufficiency was also found in that report to be mildly related to comorbidities of obesity and obstructive sleep apnea. Additionally, the attrition in functioning due to low energy, fatigue and cognitive impairment from sleep insufficiency further complicates the problem.