TUCSON, Ariz.(KGUN) — It's "Sleep Awareness Week" and the University of Arizona is working on research to find out how to get better sleep and the impact on your body. We all need sleep, but if you don’t get enough dreamtime, dealing with the consequences on your health can be a nightmare when you wake up.
Dr. Patricia Haynes works at the college of public health at the University of Arizona. She looks at how your sleep health can affect your daily life.
"When we don’t sleep the stressors in the world come in and hit us harder, ” Haynes said. "When the timing of our sleep gets off, when we sleep less or have interrupted sleep, it really affects our metabolism, our immune system you name a body system, and it affects it. When we do sleep things can kind of us easier, we can shake it off."
CDC data says at least 30% of American adults don’t get enough sleep. That lack of sleep can lead to chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression. It can also cause car crashes and mistakes at work.
"We know from basic research that as we go longer and longer without sleep, our mind starts to change, ” Haynes said. "We can actually get into hearing things or seeing things that aren’t there when we go to extended periods.”
If you have a hard time falling asleep Dr. Haynes says you must make a conscious decision and put in the effort to stop and give yourself the time needed to rest.
“In the last 10 years sleep has gone down, but work has gone up too,” Haynes said.
SLEEP AWARENESS WEEK LINK- https://www.thensf.org/sleep-awareness-week/#about-saw
CDC SLEEP INFORMATION-- https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/index.html
----
STAY IN TOUCH WITH US ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
- Download our free app for Roku, FireTV, AppleTV, Alexa, and mobile devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
