CDC: More public awareness needed on sleep health

An estimated 84 million Americans sleep less than 7 hours per night, with black and multiracial adults less likely to report healthy sleep duration vs. white, Hispanic and Asian adults, according to recent data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control.

“Sleeping less than 7 hours per night is associated with increased risk for obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, frequent mental distress and all-cause mortality,” researchers wrote.

Yong Liu, MD, of the division of population health for the CDC, and colleagues analyzed data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a state-based, random-dialed telephone survey, to determine the prevalence of a healthy sleep duration ( 7 hours) among 444,306 adult respondents. A total of 65.2% of respondents reported a healthy sleep duration; 11.8% reported sleeping 5 hours or less per night, 23% reported sleeping 6 hours; 29.5% reported sleeping 7 hours; 27.7% reported sleeping 8 hours; 4.4% reported 9 hours; 3.6% reported sleeping 10 hours.

The age-adjusted prevalence of healthy sleep duration was lower among Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders (53.7%), non-Hispanic blacks (54.2%), multiracial non-Hispanics (53.6%), and American Indians/Alaska Natives (59.6%) compared with non-Hispanic whites (66.8%), Hispanics (65.5%), and Asians (62.5%), according to researchers. The age-specific prevalence of sleeping at least 7 hours was highest among respondents aged at least 65 years (73.7%) compared with other age groups. Respondents who indicated they were unable to work or unemployed had a lower age-adjusted healthy sleep duration prevalence (51.0% and 60.2%, respectively) than did employed respondents (64.9%). The prevalence of healthy sleep duration was highest among respondents with a college degree or higher (71.5%). The prevalence was higher among married respondents (67.4%) compared with those who were divorced, widowed, or separated (55.7%), or never married (62.3%).

State-based estimates of healthy sleep duration prevalence ranged from 56.1% in Hawaii to 71.6% in South Dakota, with geographic clustering of the lowest prevalence of healthy sleep duration observed in the southeastern United States and in states along the Appalachian Mountains, the researchers noted.

“More than one third of U.S. respondents reported typically sleeping less than 7 hours in a 24-hour period, suggesting an ongoing need for public awareness and public education about sleep health, worksite shift policies that ensure healthy sleep duration for shift workers, particularly medical professionals, emergency response personnel and transportation industry personnel, and opportunities for health care providers to discuss the importance of healthy sleep duration with patients and address reasons for poor sleep health,” the researchers wrote.

For more information:

Prevalence of Healthy Sleep Duration among Adults — United States, 2014. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6506a1.htm?s_cid=mm6506a1_w.