Iowans will lose an hour of sleep this weekend as clocks spring forward, but for many it’ll be just be another day in their regular struggle to get enough rest. Among the most common factors for losing sleep are pain, stress and poor health. It’s estimated that more than a third of adults don’t always get the amount of sleep they need to feel their best. Dr. Stephen Grant with Iowa Sleep says that’s even more true for those who have chronic or acute pain. “The suffering associated with pain can produce anxiety and the suffering and anxiety when combined can really preclude someone’s ability to fall asleep, as well as if they are awoken by pain, return to sleep.”

According to a new poll out today (Monday) from the National Sleep Foundation, pain, stress and poor health all correlate to shorter sleep durations and worse sleep quality for millions of Americans. Overall, there are about 80 different types of sleep disorders. Grant says among the most common are insomnia, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy and apnea. Apnea occurs when a person’s airways narrow or collapse during sleep.

Dr. Grant says “Most of the people that I see with obstructive sleep apnea have respiratory events that we call hypopneas. And that’s people that just kind of snore and have enough resistance in their airway when they sleep, they just don’t ventilate appropriately. They don’t get the oxygen in or the carbon dioxide out.”

This is Sleep Awareness Week and the need of many to get more “Z’s” will be apparent on Sunday, when Daylight Saving Time begins in the U-S and an hour is lost as clocks spring forward.

(Iowa News Service)