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Health
An ability to get the right amount of shut-eye each night differs depending on race, ethnicity and your birthplace
By Charles Q. Choi
|
June 18, 2012 |
Sleep should be the great equalizer.
Whatever
differences might divide us during the day, the nonconsciousness that
comes with nighttime should be one thing we all have in common.
It ain't necessarily so. Scientists have now found significant
differences exist in how people sleep in the U.S. depending on race,
ethnicity and country of origin, suggesting genetic or cultural
differences in shut-eye patterns. This line of research could help
identify how these disparities might affect health and find better ways
to improve sleep.
One study looked at sleep data gathered from more than 430,000 people in the U.S. between 2004 and 2010 as part of the
National Health Interview Surveys,
which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducts
annually to monitor the country's well-being. They found that
foreign-born respondents were generally more likely to sleep the
recommended healthy six to eight hours each night as compared with
native-born Americans.
"This study is particularly interesting, because it goes to show that
the unhealthy American lifestyle includes more than a poor diet and lack
of exercise—it also means unhealthy sleep patterns, and this can lead
to important health consequences," says sleep researcher Michael
Grandner at the University of Pennsylvania, who did not take part in
this research. "It seems like foreign-born Americans may be protected by
not adopting this unhealthy lifestyle."
Past research suggests that habitually sleeping less or more than the
recommended six to eight hours for adults can be linked to certain
higher health risks, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes,
obesity, stroke,
cancer and accidents as well as instances of mental disorders such as
depression.
These findings regarding sleep disparities "can help us understand not
only who to target for improving sleep with the aim of improving health,
but it can help us identify the social and environmental influences on
sleep, which might be modifiable," Grandner says. Unlike many other
foreign-born persons, African-born Americans were more likely to report
sleeping six hours or less, suggesting that helping them find more sleep
could help them with other health issues, says the study's lead author
Abhishek Pandey, a sleep researcher at the State University of New York
Downstate Medical Center.
Another study analyzed 439 volunteers in the Chicago Area Sleep Study, a
randomly selected, racially diverse sample of Chicago adults who donned
wrist sensors that measured how long they slept each night for a week
and answered surveys about sleep quality and daytime drowsiness.
Researchers found that white participants on average slept about 30
minutes longer than other ethnic groups whereas blacks reported the
worst sleep quality and Asians claimed to be the most sleepy during the
day.
These disparities apparently represent normal experiences, and not
underlying sleep disorders, says the study's lead author Mercedes
Carnethon, an epidemiologist at Northwestern University. For instance,
these differences persisted even after statistically adjusting for
cardiovascular disease risk factors that researchers already know are
linked with poor sleep, such as body mass index, high blood pressure and
diabetes. The scientists also excluded people who had evidence of mild
to moderate sleep apnea, a disorder that causes abnormal pauses in
breathing during sleep.
"These studies show very clearly that when, how and how much you sleep
is partially determined by who you are and where you come from,"
Grandner says. Pandey, Carnethon and their colleagues detailed their
findings June 13 at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional
Sleep Societies in Boston.
Differences in sleep patterns might stem from genetic and anatomical
variations between groups. For instance, past research suggests blacks
and whites might sleep differently because of disparities in
inflammation responses and that various groups might display distinctive
the structure in their airways, influencing how they breathe during
sleep, Pandey says.
Grandner notes such biological distinctions are embedded within a
context of familial, cultural, neighborhood and other social factors.
"It is only when we can come to grips with this multilayered environment
that we can understand why different groups of people experience
differences in
sleep,"
he says. "If this seems too daunting, just remember that this is the
exact sort of work that was recognized as needed for other domains of
healthy behavior, such as healthy diet, adequate exercise, decreased
alcohol use and decreased
smoking."
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