A headline today caught my eye: "It’s Time to Pay Attention to Sleep, the New Health Frontier." (Since installing a sleep-tracking app on my phone, I've been playing with different bed times, forms of exercise and other factors to measure their effects on sleep time and quality.) Anyway, the piece, on Time.com, explains why sleep's importance to health is more serious than many of us really acknowledge. And it offers this bit of historical perspective on why now is the time to pay attention:
According to a 2013 Gallup survey, 40% of Americans get less than the recommended seven to eight hours a night. While the typical person still logs about 6.8 hours of sleep per night, that’s a drop from the 7.9 Americans were getting in the 1940s.
Previously: Exploring the benefit of sleep apps, Sleep on it: The quest for rest in the modern hospital, Mobile devices at bedtime? Sleep experts weigh in and Stanford doc talks sleep (and fish) in new podcast
