DeKalb County, Georgia – Single parents, especially mothers, figured as the most sleep-deprived people in the United States in a new study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The findings might not surprise you but it’s important to note that health officials recommend a good night’s sleep to reduce risks of diabetes, heart disease, depression and even cancer.
For this study, CDC researchers analyzed data collected in the 2013-2014 National Health Interview Survey, which is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) every year with about 44,000 adults. The survey revealed that 44 percent of single mothers who live with children under the age of 18, slept less than the recommended 7 hours of nightly sleep, according to the report. As for single dads, 38 percent of them slept less than the advised number of hours.
Moreover, single parents were more likely to have a poorer quality of sleep and signals of insomnia, and they were also more likely to report using sleep medications. But they did not so bad compared to adults living as part of two-parent families, since around 33 percent of them slept less than the recommended 7 hours, the CDC reported. CDC investigators wrote that the difference, though small, was still statistically significant.
“In general, people tend to sacrifice sleep when they have competing priorities, such as work, family responsibilities and social obligations,” commented Dr. Stuart Quan, a sleep medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
He said the study findings were not surprising since single parents have more responsibilities than adults in a two-parent family.
Researchers say that a relevant result of the survey was that, regardless of the type of family, all women were more likely than men to get a harder time sleeping seven hours at night. Fifty-seven percent of single mothers reported waking up feeling they were not well-rested, whereas 46 percent of women who lived in two-parent families reported the same; and 39 percent of women who lived at home without children also stated that.
“In virtually all epidemiological studies of sleep, women tend to have more sleep-related complaints than men,” said Quan, who was not involved in the CDC report.
He added that gender differences in sleep quality can be observed from a very early age.
Source: Tech Times