Did you sleep well last night? Apparently, many Kentuckians would answer that question with a resounding, “No!” according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness.
While residents of neighboring West Virginia lead that nation in having problems sleeping based on the study conducted by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, residents of Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma were not far behind Mountain State residents in complaining about not sleeping well.
Nearly 1 in 5 West Virginians told researchers they didn’t get a single — not one! — good night’s sleep in the previous month, which is double the national average. In contrast, residents of North Dakota slept better than the rest of the nation with only 1 in 13 reporting any degree of sleeplessness in the previous month.
If residents of Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee have more trouble sleeping than those in other states, then that begs a question: Why? But researchers did not ask those surveyed why they were not sleeping well, said Lela McKnight-Eily, a CDC epidemiologist who led the study.
That has led experts to speculate on the cause of the sleep problems. West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee rank near the bottom of the nation in a variety of health measures, including obesity, smoking, heart disease and the proportion of adults with disabilities. Studies have increasingly found sleeping problems in people with certain health problems, including obesity.
Some experts believe sleep-deprived people are more inclined to eat more fatty foods during the day. And, believe it or not, what we eat can affect how well we sleep — and that goes beyond just consuming too much caffeine in coffee and soft drinks.
“There’s growing evidence sleep deprivation promotes obesity,” said Dr. Ronald Chervin, a University of Michigan sleep disorders expert.
Financial stress and odd-hour work shifts can play roles in sleeplessness, too, Chervin added. That can be a problem in both West Virginia and Kentucky, both economically depressed states with thousands of people working in coal mining.
The report is based on results of an annual telephone survey of more than 400,000 Americans, including at least 3,900 in each state. The survey did not include people who only use cell phones, CDC officials said, which of course is a growing percentage of the population.
This region’s drug problems also can be a factor in its sleeping woes. While effective law enforcement seems to have reduced the abuse of methamphetamines, those who use meth can reportedly go for days without sleeping. Some of the prescription drugs on which too many area resident have become addicted also can lead to a lack of sleep.
For whatever reason, a lack of sleep can lead to increased mistakes and poor production at work, serious accidents when driving and a wide range of other problems.
Poor Richard — a.k.a. Benjamin Franklin —was not far off when he wrote: “Early to bed, early to wise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Adults should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, experts say. Those who don’t — and there apparently are many such people in this state — are simply not performing at their best when they are awake.
Editorials
Unable to sleep — 11/04/09
Study finds Kentuckians near top in not getting enough rest
- Editorials
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Retiring
Dr. Gregory Adkins has served as president of Ashland Community and Technical College during a period of rapid growth and substantial changes. Adkins announced last week that he will retire June 30 after almost 11 years as the head of the school that now is located not only just off 13th Street in Ashland but also is in EastPark more than 20 miles from the Ashland campus.
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