Jagdish Khubchadani, PhD, Professor of Health Science at Ball State University and specializes in Social epidemiology demography and public health, talks about the health effects of sleep deprivation and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, I know that you’ve done some work looking at sleep and sleep deprivation in America. Can you give me some of the numbers? Apparently Americans are not getting enough sleep.
Khubchadani: We are a sleep deprived nation. In 2008 some 25 percent of Americans slept less than seven hours which is required. By 2018 those numbers have become a third of Americans are sleeping lesser than they should. And you know this is a progressive escalation. So, we took a sample of a hundred and fifty thousand people over ten years and saw if they were sleeping less or more or the same amount. So gradually people are sleeping lesser and through this pandemic I think the numbers have worsened.
Did you break it down by gender? Are men sleeping less? Are women sleeping less?
Khubchadani: Initially in the early 21st century it was men who were sleeping less. And now, as time progresses, it’s women. And we find that women are more likely to have a job, have children at home, multiple responsibilities so their sleep deprivation is escalating.
How many hours a night is the average American getting?
Khubchadani: We have a prescription for seven hours. But the average for the nation would be six and a half or around that. And once you decompose that number you’ll find that there are some groups who sleep less than 5, 4 and those are shift workers people with multiple jobs in the lowest socioeconomic strata, people in the South, police officers, doctors, nurses.
You mention people in the South. Why is it by geography that some people sleep less?
Khubchadani: We have to find some explanation. Part of it in the South could be low income, the poor economy, the stresses that come with the poor economy that people sleep lesser.
When people are getting less than the prescribed amount, less than 7 hours a night, what are they at risk health wise for developing?
Khubchadani: People may not realize that they’re at risk. So, you may continue to find people who would say I sleep six hours, five hours. I’m still doing fine. But eventually it builds up in your system. So, in the short term you have nervous disorders, anxiety, your reflexes become poor, your judgment becomes poor, anger management becomes an issue and in the long run you continue to gain weight. You have a risk of heart disease, cancers and stroke because sleep is like a medicine. That’s your time when you rejuvenate. You grow again. You feel relaxed, fulfilled. It’s that time needed to you know calm down and reenergize yourself.
Over what period of time, for example, if someone has a couple of nights where you know they’ve got a project or you know people are in town and they’re not getting that sleep, you’re talking about chronic like over a period of weeks or is it a period of months?
Khubchadani: In our studies we asked people in the last one week how many days did you get seven hours of sleep? How many hours did you sleep on an average? So you know there are people who have occasional sleep problems but we have a sizable proportion that has a chronic sleep problem either because of the economy, their jobs, their stressors, and we have to bring those people out of that stressful situation where they just continue to sleep lesser and lesser.
So, six and half, and this was prior to COVID, what are you finding now? How is this impacting people?
Khubchadani: The recent studies and the polls have found that more than half of Americans have been affected socially economically. So, our number by 2018 a third of Americans slept lesser. And I guess now it’s half of the people don’t sleep enough.
And why would that be?
Khubchadani: You know we are social animals. So, we don’t get to see more people now. There is a stressful situation going around. People are concerned about their economy, jobs. They are isolated, lonely and all of that affects our brain. And the bigger part is uncertainty, the anxiety that comes with this pandemic.
Do you have any suggestions, any tips for people to try to first of all measure? Should they be measuring how much sleep they’re getting?
Khubchadani: Yeah. They should you know have some idea of how much they’re sleeping and that can also be done by how you feel. If you’re sleeping lesser, by the morning you should be feeling not refreshed. You should feel that you are missing something. Your quality of sleep was poor. So, one, you have to keep an eye on number of hours and how you feel once you wake up.
So, like a sleep monitor or checking your Fitbit, not necessarily a prescription for monitoring what’s going on.
Khubchadani: No. No. No. Generally, I think those people who sleep less should have some feeling about their sleep, number of hours and quality. Like even if you sleep seven hours, are you waking up frequently? Are you distressed when you’re sleeping? And those should be some warning signs.
So, what do people need to do? What are some suggestions for people that they can implement right now and start doing them?
Khubchadani: Again, we should go by the National Sleep Foundation and you know major health professional organizations. The number one suggestion is to maintain a routine and a schedule. Given the pandemic, it’s not easy. You know we have people watching Netflix, TV, till 3:00 a.m. in the night. So, the one thing that you have to focus on is to maintain a schedule. If you have to go to bed by 11:00 it should be 11 every day. So, one, maintaining a schedule, keeping technology away in the bedroom, not drinking coffee and alcohol before you sleep. Those are three basic things that you can do to you know ensure that you’re getting a good quality sleep and are at lower risk for health problems.
Though you mentioned the big three, are there other things you could suggest? Does exercise help?
Khubchadani: Yes. Exercise helps a lot. Stress management helps a lot. You know keeping yourself occupied physically, mentally would be helpful instead of spending all your time on TV and news, Facebook and Twitter, there has to be some physical activity too so that you feel tired enough to sleep.
This may not have been part of the study, but what about kids? Is there a prescription for kids?
Khubchadani: Generally I would say people should stay away from prescriptions. They can cause more damage like I’ve seen people go to a grocery store and take a sleep aid. That’s not how you treat a sleep problem. So, you know you have to watch. If your sleep problem is causing your distress and you are finding health symptoms or psychological symptoms, then you need a qualified physician to diagnose you and prescribe medication.
How about hours for children? I know your study was geared more towards adults.
Khubchadani: For adults it’s seven hours minimum. For kids it depends on the age but certainly more than adults, eight to nine hours of good sleep because that’s when they release the growth hormone. All the growth takes place when people are sleeping. So, for kids it’s less per an hour.
Is there anything I did not ask you that you think people need to know?
Khubchadani: I think we need to emphasize that we are running around finding the best medicine for stress and a number of problems like heart disease. But sleep is the best medicine available for free and maintaining it should be a number one priority.
How many people did you and your colleagues study? Was it 150?
Khubchadani: One hundred and fifty thousand over nine years in 2010 to 2018.
Did you gather data by survey?
Khubchadani: It’s a National Health Interview Survey. So, the CDC collects the data for us like they call people in the homes and ask them questions. And that data is available for the public to analyze. What we wanted to do is you know we wanted to take a bigger cross section because most of the studies that existed did not highlight findings over a period of time. It was like last year people were sleeping lesser this month. We wanted to see a 10-year cross-section. So, we found that over time Americans are sleeping lesser, becoming sleep deprived, and you know other findings were decomposed by gender, race, age, income, geography. So, we had a lot of factors to look at. And we also wanted to see if jobs are changing in America if that’s one reason. That was not found to be a reason. It does seem like even if the jobs change, technology change, the American workplace has become stressful, increasingly stressful. And that’s confirmed by the stress in America studies that every year as we look at workers in the United States, the workplaces are becoming more stressful, extra competitive and you know challenging for people.
Interview conducted by Ivanhoe Broadcast News.
END OF INTERVIEW
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