It has been conclusively determined that achieving the recommended nightly 7-9 hours of sleep is beyond the grasp of nearly a third of the population. This revelation comes from the expertise of Flinders University specialists, who have discovered that 31% of adults fall short of this optimal sleep duration.
An extensive international study involving thousands of adults and published in Sleep Health found that a mere 15% of participants managed to sleep within the recommended range of 7-9 hours for five or more nights each week. Moreover, even among those who averaged 7-9 hours per night throughout a nine-month monitoring period, around 40% of their nights needed to align with the ideal sleep duration.
This finding is of significant importance, as Dr Hannah Scott, a researcher at Flinders University, points out. The pattern of not getting enough sleep, or in some cases, getting too much, is linked with adverse health outcomes, and the ramifications of inconsistent sleep are just beginning to be understood. Dr Scott emphasises the difficulty many face in consistently achieving the recommended sleep range, particularly during the working week.
The study used sleep tracker data gathered through an under-mattress sensor to examine the sleep patterns of nearly 68,000 adults globally over nine months. This cohort comprised 67,254 adults, predominantly from Europe and North America, monitored using the Withings under-mattress Sleep Analyser.
The health implications of sleeping less than six hours on average per night are severe, including an increased risk of mortality and various conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and heart disease. Furthermore, sleeping less than seven or more than 9 hours daily is associated with a spectrum of adverse health and well-being outcomes, including issues related to digestion and neuro-behavioural health.
The study noted gender differences in sleep duration, with female participants generally achieving longer sleep than males, and age-related variations, where middle-aged individuals tended to sleep less than younger and older people.
Professor Danny Eckert, the co-author of the study, an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) leadership fellow, and director of Sleep Health research at Flinders University, calls for public health and advocacy efforts to support community and individual initiatives towards achieving more regular sleep within the recommended range. Prof. Eckert stresses the necessity of assisting individuals with chronic sleep difficulties and encouraging everyone to prioritise sleep for their health.
Additionally, the research highlights the correlation between regular snoring and hypertension, underscoring the wide-reaching effects of sleep patterns on health.
The Flinders sleep researchers offer several recommendations for improving sleep regimes. These include maintaining a regular sleep schedule to ensure restorative sleep, adjusting for unavoidable commitments like shift work, and being vigilant for symptoms of insufficient sleep. Experimenting with longer sleep schedules or naps might benefit those suspecting they are not getting enough sleep. The advice also extends to good sleep hygiene practices, such as reducing caffeine and alcohol intake and avoiding heavy meals before bedtime. Lastly, individuals concerned about their sleep are advised to consult their GP, who can refer them to sleep specialists for further assessment and treatment of sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea and insomnia.
More information: Hannah Scott, et al, Are we getting enough sleep? Frequent irregular sleep found in an analysis of over 11 million nights of objective in-home sleep data, Sleep Health. DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2023.10.016
Journal information: Sleep Health Provided by Flinders University
