Getting good quality sleep at night is very important to be able to get through your day. Southeast Utah Health Department Director, Brady Bradford took time from his busy schedule to come into Castle Country Radio to discuss sleeping habits.

Sleep deprivation is considered a public health epidemic and can cause individuals many health problems.  “We understand a lot more about why we sleep and the impacts of insufficient sleep in our lives, including weaken immune system. If we don’t consistently getting too little sleep but it can lead to various types of cancer, memory loss, its can lead to pre-diabetic symptoms. As well as increase risks of cardiovascular disease, and stroke. Then along with that some mental health issues, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts. So again we not talking so much about one night of missed sleep but are we consistently losing out on hours of sleep that do more than make us cranky in the morning when we’re a little bit tired,” stated Bradford. At first, sleep deprivation may cause minor symptoms like common colds and flu, but over time, these symptoms can become more serious problems.

While most sleep requirements vary from person to person, typically eight hours is recommended. “So, you know, it does truly vary depending on your age. We know that our infant and toddlers they’re generally needing somewhere between 12 to 14 hours a day. Our teenagers, need about 9 to 10 a day, but their sleep needs generally don’t align with an adult sleep need. They genuinely, most or many teenagers’ wont’ feel tired until later in the evening than many adults will. Nevertheless, its important for them to kind of manage that knowing that they got to get up for school. Adults will need 7 to 8 hours of sleep and a lot of people sometimes feel a lot of pride in not needing a lot of sleep but pay attention to that. You know it’s a new year we can think about a fun type of resolution – I’m going to get an hour more of sleep at night and such,” explained Bradford. Getting a good nights sleep can improve your memory and performance, lower weight gain risk and strengthen your immune system.

If you are unable to get the sleep that you need at night it may not be a bad idea to speak with your primary care physician. “If you’re having some issues as we get through this it would be important to talk with your doctor about it but we’re just hoping to make people a little bit more aware of what they’re doing and how they can maybe improve that amount of sleep, and quality of sleep they are getting,” said Bradford. To learn more about sleep and sleep disorders visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/index.html