SanFranChronicle

Look at What's Getting in the Way of Sleep: Americans working more, getting less rest and having less sex Larry D. Hatfield, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/28/MN134870.DTL

This is National Sleep Week, and if you're like the majority of Americans,

you are not celebrating it properly, because you're not getting enough of it.

That's the conclusion of a survey by the National Sleep Foundation released yesterday that said Americans are getting both less sleep and less sex in the bedroom.

"Instead of working to live, (Americans) are living to work, a shift that has had a profound impact on their personal lives," the foundation said.

The 2001 Sleep in America poll of 1,004 adults found that 63 percent get less than eight hours a night and about 31 percent get less than seven hours.

The poll also showed that 52 percent of the respondents were spending less time having sex than they did five years ago, and 38 percent said they have sex less than once a week.

Daytime sleepiness was linked to marital problems, and 77 percent of those having sleep problems said they also have less marital satisfaction.

"It is a serious social problem," said Dr. Christian Guilleminaulte, an internationally known sleep researcher at Stanford's Sleep Disorders Center.

He said constantly living under the stress of not getting enough sleep can exacerbate medical problems such as high blood pressure and digestive disorders. He also said sleep has a relationship to the body's immune function,

and not getting enough could weaken the ability to fight off disease.

Already working longer hours than workers in any industrialized nation in the world, a U.S. worker averages 46 hours a week on the job, with 38 percent working more than 50 hours. More than half (51 percent) said sleepiness affects the amount of work they get done.

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

Answers

When my husband is on deployment, I get enough rest.

When my husband is home, we're making up for lost time, so... I don't get much rest.

Hard decision on which I like best.... but I think I like having him home more.

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

OG, When you ask if I was getting enough I had something else in mind. :) LOL Blessings, David

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

David,

You and I seem to think alike :LOL

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

Beckie, could we both have dangerous minds? LOL

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

At my age, David, it's sleep and glasses of water I think about when I see that question.

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

Not getting enough here. I also only work 40 hours a week. It's just the schedule, 5 to 130am that gets me. I tend to be up till 4 or 6 am before falling asleep, and then I wake up around noon, usually to the sound of the phone. six hours a day for a month or so and you start to feel it. then on my days off, I can't get much done.

With all the exercises that I have to do for therapy on my arm, and typing isn't one of them LOL] there ain't much time left....

Now then, I think I'll go to another thread and leave Beckie and David alone.....

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

David, I think Barefoot is trying to get us in trouble or at the very least start a terrible rumor :)

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

Beckie, but what a way to get in trouble. :o) LOL

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001

Just checking to see if the coast is clear yet...

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001

David,

This is so funny - almost like something out one of those old westerns. I gather you are Native American and my DH looks like the Marlboro man. I must be either the kindly owner of the bar in town (no not the madam) or Annie Oakley - maybe Calamity Jane??

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001

Aha! Role playing. Got costumes?

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001