You may have read the headline above and thought -- maybe for a split-second -- about the number of traffic accidents related to sleep deprivation. Wouldn't be surprised if you did, but that's a very powerful image illustrating the point made by University of Wisconsin researchers that the lack of sleep brought on by chronic insomnia can be deadly for your health.

The Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study tracked the incidence of chronic insomnia among some 2,200 state employees from 1989-2000, leading up to a recent Social Security death index search that found 128 patients had died during a follow-up period of nearly two decades.

Defined by four symptoms of chronic insomnia -- getting up repeatedly, waking up too early and problems with going to sleep and getting back to sleep -- patients who suffered from them generally elevated their mortality odds by 2.3 times or more. Although the causes of death have yet to be determined, other studies have pointed to the obvious (accidents) and the not so obvious (heart disease).

If you're having problems maintaining a consistent sleep cycle, review this checklist of tips to improve your waking health -- none of which include taking a drug -- to determine if any of them might help. If none of them do, please go see your doctor.

San Antonio Express-News June 8, 2010

American Academy of Sleep Medicine June 7, 2010

If women needed another good reason to get the right amount of sleep for their good health, besides helping them fight arthritis, the perimenopausal interval in a woman's life appears to demand it, according to a British study.

Researchers discovered the anomaly while comparing the health of some 3,000 men and women without cardiovascular disease for any links between sleep duration and hypertension. Unfortunately, the correlation between a lack of sleep -- less than six hours per night -- and hypertension affected only women, not men.

Overall, women who skipped on their sleep were 66 percent more likely to battle hypertension than those who slept more than six hours nightly. Moreover, this problem was experienced more than two-fold among women who were transitioning into menopause than those who were already past their child-bearing years.

All the more reason to check out these tips for improving your waking health by getting more sleep. (By the way, none of the items on this extensive sleep checklist require that you take a drug.)

Journal of Hypertension December 25, 2009

Warwick Medical School (UK) January 11, 2010

Lots of research has documented the deleterious effect a lack of sleep can have on the health of adults, specifically raising their risks of diabetes. Less sleep each night -- eight hours or less -- may also harm your kids, elevating their blood sugar and, eventually, raising their risk of diabetes.

Chinese scientists discovered the sleepy link to adult diabetes while observing the health of more than 600 obese children (ages 3-6), then comparing them to an equal number of kids who maintained a healthy weight and had no blood sugar issues. Overall, 47 percent of the obese kids monitored spent less time in the sack (eight hours or less per night), compared to non-obese patients (37 percent).

As a result, obese children who slept fewer hours were more than twice as likely to experience higher blood sugar levels. The lack of sleep, however, also harmed the health of the non-obese as well, elevating their blood sugar by a factor of 1.35. Possibly, the most telling statistic: Of the nearly 300 obese children who got less than eight hours of sleep each night, 49 patients experienced high blood sugar problems, more than double the number of overweight kids with elevated blood sugar who slept nine or 10 hours a night.

All the more reason to review our recent feature on improving your sleep habits and your child's.

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Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Vol. 164, No. 1, pp. 46-52, January 2010

Reuters.com January 11, 2010

You can certainly read the headline of today's blog more than one way, but if you live in the Eastern and Southeastern U.S. chances are better than good that you're more tired than most of your fellow Americans, according to the first CDC report polling more than 400,000 folks in 2008 about their sleep problems.

West Virginia earned the dubious distinction of leading the nation with 19.3 percent of its citizens reporting sleep problems, followed by Tennessee (14.8 percent), Kentucky (14.4 percent) and Oklahoma (14.3 percent). In fact, every state save Wisconsin (8.6 percent) east of the Plains states reported sleep problems above 9.7 percent, which may explain why the overall average of sleeplessness nationwide was 11.1 percent. And, women experienced more sleep issues than men, an unhealthy repeat from other studies.

All that said, however, it doesn't take much effort to improve your sleep habits, as our recent list of tips to improve your waking health demonstrates. Here's a few hints to get you started on the path to better, more relaxing sleep.

* When you're ready to go to sleep, don't try to finish that book first. Just do it.

* Keep all electronic devices, save for an alarm clock, out of your bedroom. And, that means pets too!

* Keep your bedroom cool, even as the temperatures drop.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report/CDC October 29, 2009 Full Free Report

USA Today October 29, 2009

Changing your sleep habits with behavioral therapy -- not a prescription -- can do a world of good for your health, especially for older Baby Boomers battling osteoarthritis and related comorbid (secondary) insomnia, according to a recent study.

Researchers compared the effect of treating osteoarthritis and insomnia with cognitive behavior therapies on 23 patients (average age 69) over the course of a year versus assigning 28 patients (mean age 66.5) to a stress management/wellness control group.

No surprise, sleep latency (the time it takes to transition from being fully awake to asleep) among patients learning new therapies decreased significantly at the outset (almost 17 minutes) and those same benefits persisted a year later (11 minutes). Wake after sleep onset (the time spent from sleep onset to final awakening) also fell sharply by 37 minutes and almost 20 minutes 12 months later.

The pain associated with arthritis declined significantly too (by 9.7 points initially and 4.7 points a year later), leading researchers to conclude that insomnia coexists as a separate illness alongside osteoarthritis, not as a symptom, so improving sleep habits can have a beneficial impact on both conditions.

Learn how to get more and better sleep every night and treat the aches and pains that may be associated with it by reviewing these latest Sleep Tips to Improve Your Waking Health.

Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, Vol. 5, No. 4, August 15, 2009. p. 355-362

healthfinger.gov August 20, 2009

EurekAlert August 15, 2009