The Centers for Disease Control reports that 35 percent of American adults regularly get fewer than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night, a figure that rises to 42 percent among shift workers and parents with young children. Chronic sleep deprivation is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, impaired immune function, and motor vehicle accidents.
Sleep medicine specialists are pointing to structural factors beyond individual behavior including evening smartphone use, irregular work schedules, noise and light pollution, and social norms that equate minimal sleep with productivity. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia has a strong evidence base as a first-line treatment that avoids the dependency risks of sleep medications, but access to trained therapists is severely limited in most communities.
