November 2, 2004
Healthy Aging
Lack of sleep may greatly affect health
It’s 5 a.m. in the Johnson household. My husband’s still asleep and will be for another hour, maybe longer. He knows he needs eight to nine hours of sleep each night to function optimally.
It’s taken me longer to understand my own sleep needs — in fact, I’m still learning. I have a hard time getting six to seven hours. Research suggests I’m at risk.
A recent report from Harvard University found that women who regularly sleep six hours a night have an 18 percent greater risk of heart attack. For women who sleep just five hours a night, the risk
jumps to almost 40 percent. This was a large study involving 70,000 women over a 10-year period. It’s the kind of study that makes you wake up and pay attention.
There are "alarming links" (that’s the term the people at the Sleep Disorders Clinic at Stanford University use) between sleep deprivation and chronic disease. In fact, the Stanford
folks go as far as to say that "sleep is the most important predictor of how long you will live, perhaps even more important than whether you smoke, exercise or have high blood pressure." In
my experience, researchers don’t make "perhaps" statements unless they have strong supporting evidence.
Some researchers believe your body uses sleep for self-repair. Protective, physiologic changes occur during sleep that affect how we fight disease or bounce back from illness. If we don’t
regularly get enough sleep, our bodies are slowly but surely pushed toward disease conditions.
Experts say we need eight hours of restorative sleep each night. Not six, not even seven — eight. A "Sleep in America" study found that two-thirds of us don’t get that. (It’s
mildly comforting for me to know I’m not the only one awake at 5 a.m.)
The same researchers who are studying sleep have some useful ideas about getting enough. They encourage regular daytime exercise (but recommend any major physical exertion cease three hours before
going to bed). They suggest developing sleep rituals (warm bath, warm milk). A regular and routine time of going to bed and getting up is important —as is keeping the temperature in your bedroom
on the cool side.
There’s a really novel suggestion from the researchers at Tufts University. They encourage making a just-before-bed to-do list for the next day. It’s been found that writing down what you
need to do prompts you to better organize your thoughts. It relaxes you "knowing you will wake up the next morning with a targeted plan."
I need a plan. Before the invention of the light bulb more than 100 years ago, people were averaging 10 hours of sleep night. Now, I’m in no way suggesting that’s my plan, or even a good
plan, but "more" is clearly better to reduce sleep-related risks.
Let’s see, backing down eight hours from my preferred rising time of 5 a.m. gets me to 9 p.m. So it looks like I should be in bed by 9 each night — in my cool bedroom, after my warm bath. I
think I better write that down.
Sharon Johnson is an assistant professor in family and community development at OSU Extension and a member of the Senior Advisory Council. Reach her at s.johnson@oregonstate.edu.
