Natural Healthy Sleep--A Key Ingredient to Health

Sleep disorders have become another major epidemic. According to recent research, over 70 million Americans suffer from such disorders, 60% of which are chronic. An estimated 20% - 40% of adults suffer from insomnia each year. In one study, 54% of adults reported that they had experienced at least one symptom of insomnia in the past year. These problems add an estimated $15.9 billion in annual health care costs.

Research in the UK indicates that sleepiness accounts for an estimated 20% of of all motor vehicle accidents there and has been proven to be as dangerous as drunk driving. A whopping 34% of drivers who drove more than 20,000 miles a year admitted they had fallen asleep at the wheel during the previous 12 months.

This problem includes over 2 million children in the U.S. It's estimated that between 30 and 40% of children get less than the 9 to 10 hours of sleep they require each night.

Interestingly, sleep problems are about twice as common with women as with men. Pregnancy, as well as menopause and hormone changes, are major contributing factors here.

These problems are also more prominent with people over 65, over half of whom suffer from disturbed sleep. Although Americans in this age group account for about 13% of the population, they consume over 40% of prescribed sleeping medications.

Sleep deprivation is also highly correlated with obesity and is clearly a major contributing factor in many diseases. Some weight loss experts believe that getting an adequate amount of sleep is an absolutely necessary condition to successful long-term weight loss.

Since chronic use of most sleeping medications leads to habituation, as well as other problematic side effects (e.g., daytime grogginess), there is a huge need for alternative, healthy ways to improve sleep. The main purpose of this blog is to help provide this assistance.