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With some questionable health advice being posted by your friends on Facebook, politicians arguing about the state of the American healthcare system and a new medical study being summarized in just a sentence or two on TV---that seems to contradict the study you heard summarized yesterday---it can be overwhelming to navigate the ever-changing landscape of health news.

Sleep

How many times did you hit the snooze button this morning? As playwright Wilson Mizner observed, “The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more.”

The National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute states, “Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.” And even though we all know we feel better when we have had a good night’s sleep, the Sleep Division of Harvard Medical School notes that we are a society that burns the candle at both ends, a nation where people stay up all night to study, work, or have fun. When we sacrifice sleep for productivity…or to binge watch Netflix…we set ourselves up for both short- and long-term consequences.

In the short term, a lack of adequate sleep can affect judgment, mood, ability to learn and retain information, and may increase the risk of serious accidents and injury. In the long term, chronic sleep deprivation may lead to a host of health problems including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even early mortality.

The National Sleep Foundation reports that sleep health is an emerging field of research focused on how we sleep and the benefits it provides to our minds, bodies and lives. The research focuses on biology, the bedroom environment, lifestyle factors and age. 

Websites:

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/consequences/sleep-and-disease-risk
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/little-sleep-much-affect-memory-201405027136
https://sleep.org/
 

Dr. Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership, Middle & Secondary Education. She writes for special publications of The Southeast Missourian and is a certified Community Health Worker.
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