World Sleep Day - March 18
World Sleep Day is an annual, global call to action about the importance of healthy sleep. The focus of WSD is to bring cognizance to the many burdens of sleep problems and the importance of healthy sleep. WSD publicly display efforts being taken toward preventing and managing sleep disorders. Created and hosted by the World Sleep Society, World Sleep Day is an internationally recognized awareness event bringing researchers, health professionals, and patients together to recognize sleep and its significant impact on our health.
The WSD is co-chaired by Lourdes DelRosso, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Sleep Medicine Fellowship Director at the University of Washington, and Professor Fang Han, MD of The Sleep Center, Peking University People’s Hospital in Beijing, China; with support from World Sleep Society’s staff and WSD committee members.
WSD events take place globally but are listed together online at www.worldsleepday.org. In the past, World Sleep Day delegates have worked locally to spread awareness of sleep issues by hosting special events, translating materials, distributing booklets and pamphlets on sleep, hosting school events, press conferences, and securing media coverage worldwide. Delegates also created public lectures and workshops, appearances on local television and radio shows, booklets, pamphlets, promotional videos, and press releases on sleep.
Today marks the 15th annual World Sleep Day with the slogan, “Quality Sleep, Sound Mind, Happy World.”
Known Consequences: Statistics
- A US study has estimated the annual costs of insomnia to be between $92.5 billion and $107.5 billion.
- 71,000 people suffer injuries every year due to sleep-related accidents.
- 1,550 people die because of sleep-related accidents.
- 46% of individuals with frequent sleep disturbances report missing work or events, or making errors at work, compared to 15% of healthy sleepers.
General Facts About Sleep
- The three elements of good quality sleep are:
- Duration – The length of sleep should be sufficient for the sleeper to be rested and alert the following day.
- Continuity – Sleep periods should be seamless without fragmentation.
- Depth – Sleep should be deep enough to be restorative.
- A better understanding of sleep conditions and more research into the area will help reduce the burden of sleep disorders on society.
- While sporadic changes in sleep and dreaming are regular and sleep naturally responds to environmental fluctuation, extreme factors and traumatic experiences can lead to severe changes in sleep patterns, including altered dream content or more nightmares.
- It is shown that sleep supports the formation of emotional episodic memories throughout all the stages that compose memory processing. On the contrary, sleep loss deteriorates both the encoding of emotional information and the emotional memory consolidation processes.
- Medical and mental health providers have increasingly encouraged the medical benefits to youth conferred by physical activity, balanced nutrition, and quality sleep.
- Sleep plays a critical role in emotional processing.
- Sleep problems constitute a global epidemic that threatens health and quality of life for up to 45% of the world’s population.
- Most sleep disorders are preventable or treatable, yet less than one-third of sufferers seek professional help.
Facts About Sleep and COVID-19
- Sleep is adversely affected in patients, and frontline healthcare workers (HCW ) are directly involved in caring for COVID-19 patients.
- Sleep dysfunction is common in patients admitted to the ICU (related to many factors) under normal circumstances. Still, it is seen more severely in COVID-19 ICU patients and others and those in non-COVID-19 units.
- It is essential to be aware of impaired sleep quality and other sleep dysfunctions in patients and HCW, particularly frontline workers, because impaired sleep may affect their judgment in patient care. A timely investigation may improve sleep and the short and long-term consequences of sleep disruption.
- Recent studies have suggested that the sleep hormone melatonin may be beneficial for treating COVID-19. Melatonin may decrease oxidative stress, inflammation, and the immune response, which may be particularly important in patients with OSA in whom these pathways are already activated.
- Melatonin may also improve sleeping quality, which might benefit better clinical outcomes for COVID-19 patients.
- OSA is very prevalent worldwide, and given that the comorbidities of OSA patients are shared with those of COVID-19 patients who experience adverse outcomes, it may be of great importance to ensure that OSA patients receive effective CPAP therapy if confronted with COVID-19 infection.
Facts About Regular Sleep and Health
- In addition to preferred sleep timing, one can also consider how the regularity of the sleep-wake schedule influences sleeps. Cross-sectional studies illustrate that high daily lifestyle regularity, including high regularity in sleep timing, is associated with better subjective sleep in college students, young and middle-aged adults, and seniors. Regular bedtimes and rise-times are related to better sleep quality in retired older adults without the constraints of daytime work.
- Sleep quality is enhanced when in synchrony with circadian characteristics in the absence of a constricted daytime schedule.
- A more stable rise-time correlated with better self-report sleep quality and higher weekday sleep efficiency.
- Individuals who frequently change their sleep timing, and consequently their light/dark exposure pattern, may experience misalignment between the circadian system and the sleep/wake cycle since the circadian clock takes time to adjust to schedule changes. Such misalignment may harm both cognitive function and health.41
- Regular sleepers have a better mood and psychomotor performance and increased REM and slow-wave sleep time.
- Sleep regularity is independent of sleep duration.
- Irregular sleepers have delayed sleep timing and more daytime sleep.
- Sleep regularity is positively associated with academic performance.
- We also found that sleep regularity is positively correlated with academic performance. Sleep regularity was uncorrelated with sleep duration, suggesting that regularity captures another informative dimension of the sleep.
- Good sleep is essential to good health.
- Sleep health indicates how well an individual or population is doing.
- Sleep health is best understood in the context of individual, social, and environmental demands, i.e., good sleep health may not look the same in every situation or individual.
- Sleep health should not be defined exclusively by the absence of sleep deprivation or a sleep disorder.
- Sleep is critical to health.
- Sleep is a biological requirement for human life, alongside food, water, and air.
- Because sleep involves many physiologic systems, insufficient sleep duration and poor sleep quality have been associated with several adverse health outcomes (mortality, weight gain, obesity, diabetes and metabolism, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive functioning, and mental health).
- Reduced sleep duration has been shown to cause impairments in working memory, executive function, processing speed, and cognitive throughput.
- Short sleep duration is associated with poor mental health.
- Existing evidence suggests that most US schools start too early for most adolescents, especially high schools. Earlier start times promote shorter sleep duration among adolescents (who need more sleep than adults) and do not take into account natural circadian delays that occur in adolescence. It has been proposed that delaying school start times can improve academic performance, improve mental health, and improve overall health in students.
Specific Sleep Disorders
Insomnia
Insomnia affects between 30-45% of the adult population. Primary Insomnia (insomnia with no underlying condition) affects 1-10% of the general population, increasing up to 25% in the elderly. Lack of sleep or poor-quality sleep also leaves us more vulnerable to accidents. People who have insomnia are seven times more likely to become involved in an accident causing death or serious injury than good sleepers.
Studies have shown that people with insomnia suffer from more symptoms of anxiety and depression than people without insomnia. It can affect work performance, with a change in character and a drop in the quality of work. If the disorder remains untreated, this may even lead to reduced job prospects and loss of employment.
Sleep Breathing Problems
Obstructive sleep apnea is very prevalent yet under-recognized. The Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study estimated a prevalence of 17% among men and 9% among women in that state in the United States. In children, sleep apnea may be the underlying cause of neuropsychological disturbances. Pediatric sleep apnea is typically associated with adenotonsillar hypertrophy.
Untreated sleep apnea may lead to heart diseases, stroke, and vascular dementia. If sleep apnea is suspected, both adults and children should be formally investigated in sleep centers. Adult and pediatric sleep apnea are treatable and correctable; a correct and precise diagnosis is always required.
Sleep apnea is diagnosed with polysomnography in the sleep laboratory. Treatment with non-invasive positive airway (continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP) ventilation is generally successful. For mild forms of sleep apnea, oral devices can be beneficial. Surgery to remove excessive tissues in the oropharynx may be considered for individuals who cannot tolerate non-invasive equipment or have obvious obstruction to airflow in the oropharynx by redundant tissue growth or large tonsils. There is proof that successful correction of sleep apnea with non-invasive positive airway pressure ventilation lowers mean blood pressure and may reduce the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke. Excessive daytime somnolence generally improves with the successful treatment of sleep apnea.
Taking Action on World Sleep Day 2022
- Join World Sleep Day 2022 as a delegate or a supporter.
- Obtain more information at www.worldsleepday.org.
- Be cognizant that most sleep problems can be managed by changing behaviors around sleep, medical therapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy.
- Be aware that patients suffering from sleep complaints, or who suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness should see a physician and, if needed, obtain a consultation in a sleep center.
Sources:
https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/key-events/world-sleep-day.html