University of Minnesota Moment: Sleep Disorders

Transcription

[Announcer]: I'm Rick Moore with the University of Minnesota Moment. Sleep … most of us do it about 8 hours a day and never give it a second thought. For others, though, it's a much different story. Matthew Wolf-Meyer, a U of M researcher, talks about the emergence of sleep disorders.

[Wolf-Meyer]: Pre-1980, the extreme forms, like narcolepsy, were something that was recognized as a sleep disorder. Within the last twenty years, things like obstructive sleep apneas, excessive daytime sleepiness, are being diagnosed. If you have bad sleeping habits, how does that affect the rest of your health?

[Moore]: Wolf-Meyer talks about his sleep research.

[Wolf-Meyer]: The focus of the study is looking at the way in which sleep has become increasingly cultured. The sort of consolidated 8-hours-a-night was a by-product of industrialization in the mid-1800s. We're not really designed to sleep in these 8-hour blocks. We're really designed for something that's much more flexible. And this push towards the consolidated sleep schedule might, in fact, be what causes this sort of rise in sleep disorders.

[Moore]: Trouble sleeping? The answer is simple.

[Wolf-Meyer]: I tell them to go to sleep when they feel like they need to. It seems like really simple advice, but sometimes it's really difficult advice to follow. It requires a lot of negotiations: with family, in the workplace. What we know is that a 20-minute nap can make all the difference in the world as far as just feeling rested and being able to do stuff. So carry a pillow with you.

[Moore]: If you'd like to participate in a sleep study, contact Wolf-Meyer at the U of M's anthropology department. With the University of Minnesota Moment, I'm Rick Moore.