Third on Our List of Online Alerts to Health Hazards of Children


no wonder they look so similar
Creative Commons License photo credit: candiche

Third Alert

3. Insufficient sleep wreaks havoc on health, well-being and safety alertness.  Researchers from the National Public Health Institute study in Helsinki, Finland and other health experts discovered these problems due to poor sleep as outlined below:

  • poor sleep independently triples the likelihood of life dissatisfaction or being unhappy
  • sleep deprivation impairs mental alertness and cognitive abilities
  • poor sleep impairs the immune system
  • poor sleep increases the risk for obesity and diseases such as diabetes
  • a strong link between sleep deprivation and traffic accidents

Health experts provide the following advice on what is the right amount of sleep for the different age groups:

  • infants generally require about 16 hours a day
  • teenagers need, on average, about 9 hours
  • for most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night
  • some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day

Check out the 8 great tips for better sleeping at “Lifestyle from Rogers/Yahoo” blog. (There is no mention of counting sheep : ).

Be sure to consult a medical doctor if your sleeping problems continue.