The Sleep Blogger
Let us come together and discuss our sleep woes
We live in troubled times, as any glance at a newspaper reveals almost immediately. There are economic troubles, Middle East troubles, Greek bond troubles, Tiger Woods marriage troubles, and — if you’re a politician — throw-the-bums-out election troubles. But you know what seems to bring all the people of the world together? Sleep troubles.
During one recent morning of online browsing, the Sleep Blogger tripped over a trio of articles from across the globe all focused on matters of slumber. (He means “tripped” literally, by the way. The Sleep Blogger’s laptop was on the floor at the time.) For instance, the U.K. Press Association offered this report about a recent survey:
The average British adult sleeps for just six hours and 21 minutes a night — almost an hour less than two years ago, a study revealed.
… On average Britons are getting 51 minutes less shut-eye than the previous survey showed in 2008, costing employers an estimated £1 billion a year due to people taking eight million sick days as a result of a bad night’s sleep.
In Cairo, the Al-Ahram Weekly chronicled the growth of sleep clinics in Egypt, interviewing a Scottish-born patient of one clinic and then quoting a local sleep expert named Ramez Mustafa — making its report practically a United Nations of journalism:
… estimates from other countries having a similar climate and population reveal that people suffering from sleep disorders can represent up to 25 per cent of the population. “This means that there are almost 20 million people suffering from sleep disorders in Egypt,” Mustafa said, “with those suffering from severe disorders being within the range of five million and the undiagnosed representing 90 per cent of the total or above.”
The Indian Express of New Delhi, not to be outdone in matters of sleep news, offered its readers this report:
Most of us think that exercise improves sleep. But it may be that thinking that exercise improves sleep improves sleep. That, at any rate, is the provocative finding of a new study completed recently in Switzerland and published last month in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Think about that for a moment: A study done in Switzerland is published in an American academic journal and later reported in a newspaper in the Indian subcontinent. If that doesn’t make you want to clasp hands and sing “We Are the World,” nothing will.
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