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Women increasingly starved for shut-eye |
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Written by Lindy Washburn, McClatchy-Tribune
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Friday, 09 March 2007 |
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They're sleep-deprived and struggling through the day on caffeine and nerves.
Sex? Forget it. Friendships? No time. They forgo sleep, exercise and fun in favor of work. Instead of winding down at night, they're doing the chores and worrying about tomorrow.
At each stage of life — from youth to old age, through pregnancy, baby care, and menopause — women find that getting a good night's sleep is hard. And it becomes harder, not easier, as they age.
"Sure, guys are exhausted, but they're not blindsided by their biology," says Meir Kryger, chairman of the task force that designed this year's poll for the National Sleep Foundation. "They don't have babies. They don't have menopause.''
The main message, says Kryger: Women don't give sleep a high enough priority.
To cope, the "Starbucks generation" drinks another cup of Joe. Two-thirds of women use caffeine to stay awake, and more than a third drink three or more cups of coffee (or their equivalent) a day, the poll found.
"As soon as I get in in the morning, I take a double shot of espresso," says Ona Lee, 28, who commutes from Old Tappan, N.J., to her job at a New York hedge fund. She rarely goes to bed before 11, and gets up at 5:30 to get to work by 8 a.m.
"It never feels like enough," she says.
People don't understand that "sleep is a biological need," says Dr. Jeffrey Barasch, director of The Valley Hospital Sleep Center in Ridgewood, N.J. "They think it's a waste of time."
But without it, he says, "everything deteriorates: your health, your performance, your family life."
Exhaustion reduces the body's ability to fight disease. It diminishes mental sharpness, leading to poor judgment and delayed reaction time — critical factors while driving a car, say, or caring for small children. Drowsiness or driver fatigue is cited by police as a factor in 56,000 accidents annually.
Some suffer from sleep apnea, or the temporary cessation of breathing while asleep. Oxygen deprivation causes a person to wake up with a start, heart pounding.
That leads to a faster heart rate and higher blood pressure. If breathing stops too long, it can cause a heart attack.
Poor sleep goes hand in hand with poor mood. More than half of women say they're likely to be in a bad mood, sad or angry when they're sleepy during the day.
Nearly half eat sugary foods to compensate and 7 percent use medication to keep them alert.
"I just want to feel good," says 40-year-old Dot Ottina, a former social worker.
Ottina was evaluated for apnea and restless leg syndrome at Valley's Sleep Center on a recent Monday night.
Ottina attributes depression and a weight gain of 10 pounds a year to chronic sleep deprivation.
"I'm tired of feeling tired," she says.
When pressed for time, women cut back on the healthiest activities: Half say they sacrifice sleep and exercise when time is short. And more than a third cut back on time with family and friends, healthy eating, and sex with their partner, according to the poll.
"My first priority was the children; my second, work; the third, domestic things like the laundry and cleaning up," says Aimee Montanye. "I figure my husband will always be there."
She's been sleeping "two to three hours at a time," since the birth of baby Marcelle on Jan. 31. But she's not complaining: When her first child was born 19 months ago, 40 minutes was a treat.
More than half of stay-at-home moms say they get up frequently during the night, the Sleep Foundation poll found. Three-quarters say they suffer symptoms of insomnia. It's worst for the newest mothers: 42 percent of postpartum moms rarely, if ever, get a good night's sleep.
Even when the baby gives her a chance to rest, Montanye has a tough time getting to sleep. "I don't trust monitors and things like that. I get up to check her breathing," says Montanye, who runs her own consulting firm.
Susan Zafarlotfi, clinical director at the Institute for Sleep and Wake Disorders at Hackensack University Medical Center, says that's typical: "Women sleep with one eye open and one ear open once they have kids," she says. "It's never a sound sleep."
Treva Spencer-Dupree of Teaneck, N.J., who juggles a full-time job in human resources with raising two kids, ages 7 and 13, says: "I'm the sacrificial lamb."
Even so, after they are in bed and she has relaxed with ironing or a television show, she tries to "get an hour every other night to write. This is my passion. It takes me to a different place." She has published one book, and just completed another.
Experts recommend that people unwind in the hour before bedtime each night, to foster good sleep.
Instead, the poll found that more than half of women are doing housework, and more than a fifth are doing job-related work.
"I'm straightening things up, so that when I wake up, there's a semblance of order," says Anne Sinagra, 38, a Franklin Lakes, N.J., engineer and mother of two. "I don't watch any TV."
When she gets into bed, "my mind is racing," she says.
"It's not surprising," says Dr. Kirk Levy of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center's Center for Sleep and Cardiovascular Disorders. "When women try to manage both work and career, the time it bothers you is when you lay down to sleep."
While the poll highlights the societal pressures that leave women little time for sleep, it also pointed to the surprising prevalence of sleep disorders in women – one third snore, which may indicate an airway obstruction; two in 10 have symptoms of restless legs syndrome; 2 percent have sleep apnea.
The poll found that:
_More than a quarter of women said they had driven drowsy at least once a month during the previous year. One in 10 women said they had driven drowsy with children in the car.
_Three in 10 women say they use sleep aids — over-the-counter or prescribed medication — at least a few nights a week. Post-menopausal women were more likely to do so.
_Women who allow pets (14 percent) or children (9 percent) to share their bed have the most disturbed sleep.
Even without children crying in the night, women have no guarantee of a good night's rest.
The hormonal changes of menopause, which produce hot flashes and night sweats, disturb more than one in five women. And women at this age report the highest incidence of sleep disorders.
But take heart, says Barasch, of The Valley Hospital. "Almost all of these conditions have a solution — it might be a treatment, or it might be a lifestyle change. A lot of people suffer unnecessarily." | Only registered users can write comments.
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