Why losing sleep could be the latest medical crisis

By HPN Staff

The American Medical Association has officially declared sleep deprivation a “public health crisis,” urging expanded research into the numerous factors driving the national trend — including excessive screen time for children and teenagers.

More than a third of U.S. adults are getting insufficient sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the percentage for children aged between 4 and 14 is roughly the same.

But among high school students, the rate of sleep deprivation stands at 77% — a fact that is gaining more attention from federal health officials.

More research is needed into the “socioeconomic, psychosocial, environmental, technologic and commercial drivers” of sleep deprivation, according to a resolution approved by the AMA’s House of Delegates during its recent annual meeting in Chicago.

Why it matters

The AMA’s declaration builds an even stronger case for sleep deprivation to be taken more seriously by public health officials and to be treated as an economic threat as well. 

For example, a 2017 RAND Corporation report found that insufficient sleep is a major health concern, linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other leading causes of death in the U.S.

The report also found that poor sleep costs the American economy as much as $411 billion annually in lost productivity, equivalent to approximately 1.2 million lost working days.

Not only that, improving sleep to just six or seven hours for those currently getting less could inject an estimated $226 billion into the U.S. economy each year, the report estimated.

Still, during the debate over the AMA resolution, there was some disagreement over whether sleep deprivation should be labeled a public health crisis.

Some physicians feared that overusing the term “public health crisis” could diminish its meaning in other areas, while others “noted that it is difficult to implement public health interventions to address sleep given how complex this issue is.”

But delegates from the AASM successfully pushed back against these criticisms and the resolution declaring sleep deprivation to be a public health crisis narrowly passed.

The bigger picture

The AMA’s alarm over widespread sleep deprivation aligns with a growing federal interest in promoting healthy sleep, particularly among children and adolescents.

Lack of sleep among high school students “is linked to an increased risk of physical and mental health problems, alcohol and drug use, motor vehicle crashes and sports-related injuries,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has warned as part of its Healthy People 2030 initiative.

Among the “technologic drivers” cited by the AMA, screen time is a prominent concern for children’s sleep health.

In comments to federal health officials, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) has recommended “limiting the use of electronic devices as bedtime approaches (particularly in the hour before going to sleep) and keeping electronic devices out of a child’s bedroom.”

Meanwhile, adults getting less than seven hours of sleep per night “are more likely to have health problems like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia and cancer,” HHS has warned. “In addition, about 100,000 motor vehicle crashes every year in the United States are related to drowsy driving.”