An extra hour in bed this weekend won't make much of a dent in a chronic "sleep debt" that is making Canadians irritable and unproductive, the Better Sleep Council said yesterday.
A survey conducted on behalf of the mattress-industry-backed group showed that a nagging lack of proper sleep is provoking people to take it out on their family and colleagues. Men are more willing than women to make their colleagues suffer for their sleep deprivation, the data show, while women prefer to lash out at their families.
The effects go beyond mere crankiness. While almost no one calls in sick after a poor night sleep, close to half of respondents admitted they're less effective at work as they sleep-walk through the day.
"Those numbers are pretty staggering," said Gary Baskerville, spokesman for the group. "The [other] 60-per-cent are also going to be less efficient but don't realize it."
Mr. Baskerville said that few Canadians manage to get the seven to eight hours of good quality sleep the average person requires nightly. He said that the deficiency builds up and even the glories of a luxuriously long sleep-in on the weekend can't necessarily erase it.
"Just getting one good night's sleep doesn't make up for nights and nights of short sleep," he said.
Good enough or not, Canadians will have that chance to sleep in this weekend as Daylight Saving Time ends. Taking back the hour that was given up in the spring, Canadians will enjoy the sense of having an extra long Sunday.
Staying in bed is one option, though a recent survey out of Britain showed that the last way people would choose to pass this hour would be sleeping.
The Better Sleep Council is funded by mattress manufacturers, and its solutions for better sleep include a better mattress, and a better sleep plan. Part of that plan is recognizing your limits.
Mr. Baskerville said too many people make the "dark choice" to fit too many things into a day. They say they want more sleep, but are unwilling to change their patterns.
The problems raised by the Sleep Council were seconded by a researcher at the Sleep Disorders Laboratory at Kingston General Hospital. "Everybody suffers from insomnia at some point or another," said Dr. Helen Driver. "For most people, it's temporary, for others it becomes permanent."
Dr. Driver said that approximately 18 per cent of people are suffering insomnia at any given time, meaning that roughly one-fifth of people had a bad night's sleep last night.
"We're living in a sleep-deprived society, people are sleep-restricted," she said from her Kingston office. "The question to ask is whether you sleep more on the weekend. If you're doing that you're not getting enough sleep."
Relatively few people suffer from a medically-recognized sleep disorder such as sleep apnea. That breathing obstruction affects 2 to 4 per cent of Canadians. Narcolepsy, characterized by sudden and uncontrollable urges to sleep, affects close to 1 per cent.
Even so, the Sleep Council survey, conducted over the telephone by Decima Research, showed that many people are struggling with the common problem of just not getting enough sleep. Nearly one-third of respondents said that they spend between three and 10 hours of their work week struggling to stay awake.
The survey was done between Oct. 13 and 17. Researchers talked to 1,000 adults and the survey has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
