It's time for consumers to wake up to the risks of sleep disorders, scientists say.
More than 50 million adults in the U.S. have a disorder such as insomnia, restless leg syndrome or sleep apnea, according to an Institute of Medicine report. And it's now clear that a lack of sleep "not only increases the risk of errors and accidents, it also has adverse effects on the body and brain," according toCharles Czeisler, chief of the division of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Research in the past couple of decades has shown that a lack of sleep increases a person's risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, infections and maybe even Alzheimer's disease. Yet most sleep disorders go untreated.
[For more of this story, written by Jon Hamilton, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/he...-your-body-and-brain]
Comments (0)