Feeling sleep-deprived? Doctors and police officers are too, study says

About one-third of Americans are sleeping less than seven hours a night – and some of the people most affected could be the ones responsible for your safety.

Among working American adults, health and safety professionals reported the highest rates of insufficient sleep (seven hours or less), according to a recent study published in the Journal of Community Health.

Racial minorities, people with less education and those who are living alone were also at a greater risk for reporting short sleep.

The study, funded by pharmaceutical company Merck, analyzed self-reported data from the National Health Interview Survey for more than 150,000 people across the nation over the course of nine years. Researchers found that the percentage of working Americans getting short sleep is on the rise – from 30.9% in 2010 to 35.6% in 2018.

Among Americans working in protective service and military, about half reported short sleep in 2018, followed by 45% in health care support occupations.

It "is disconcerting because many of these occupations are related to population health, well-being and safety services," the researchers wrote.

For medical professionals, exhaustion could mean disaster: A 2011 study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that lack of sleep can result in higher rates of surgical complications if a surgeon had less than six hours of sleep the preceding night.

Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of health science at Ball State University who co-wrote the study, said police officers, in particular, reported difficulty sleeping at night.

"Police would say: 'The worst thing that you could do to me is ask me how my day was. It ruminates in my mind that I saw a shooting, a homicide,'" Khubchandani said.

Short sleep means a greater risk of injury, loss of productivity and premature mortality, according to the study. It's also been linked to physical and mental health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, anxiety and more. A study this year estimated the economic cost of sleep deficiency at $411 billion a year.

Researchers suggested that Americans who work long hours, change shifts or have high-stress professions are the most at risk of short sleep and the subsequent health consequences of sleep problems.

So how much sleep are adults supposed to get? At least seven hours, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

"Less than that, you're clearly posing a risk to your body for future chronic diseases," Khubchandani said. "There's a myth in society that Tom Cruise sleeps five hours and Jeff Bezos wakes up at 3 a.m., but you're never going to know what happens to them in the long term."

Nearly half of African Americans don't get enough sleep

Black Americans reported the highest rates of short sleep, according to the study.

In 2010, 40.6% of African Americans reported short sleep, while only 29.2% of white respondents reported the same. Both groups experienced increases in sleep deprivation over the nine-year period, and, by 2018, 45.5% of African Americans and 34.2% of white respondents reported short sleep.

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"There were severe disparities between African Americans and other groups, which speaks of the deprivation of the health and wellness of certain minorities," Khubchandani said. "It's a group where you can see the maximum deprivation of sleep."

Other minority groups also reported comparatively high rates of short sleep, with 44.4% of multiracial respondents and 37.7% of Alaska Native/American Indians reporting short sleep in 2018. Only Asian respondents reported a decrease in short sleep over the nine-year period.

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Other studies, dating back to 2005, have similarly identified race as a predictor of sleep patterns. A 2015 study by the journal Sleep found that — adjusting for sex, age and location — blacks were five times as likely to have short sleep as compared with whites. The National Sleep Foundation puts a number on that gap, estimating that African Americans, on average, sleep almost an hour less a night than whites.

"These differences in sleep quality don’t just make minorities more likely to be tired; they may also have a domino effect on mental and physical health. Many of the health issues that affect racial minorities at higher rates, like heart disease and diabetes, can be linked with poor sleep," the foundation says.

Why aren't Americans sleeping?

Khubchandani says a combination of factors are contributing to the American epidemic of sleep deprivation, and technology is playing a big role.

"There's clear evidence that the American workplace has been more stressful, and, there's some professions, it does seem like their mind is constantly on," Khubchandani said. "People are constantly engaged, on call. There's a lot of job insecurity and workplace harassment going on."

Khubchandani said many Americans are also experiencing external stresses.

A recent study from the American Psychological Association suggests that concerns about health care, the election and mass shootings have been the leading sources of stress this past year among Americans, particularly for minority groups.

To improve sleep, researchers suggested that employers should create a culture of health promotion at work by helping employees develop adequate sleep times and improving workplace safety. "Employers have a choice here: either pay more in health care costs, or build in health promotion programs," Khubchandani said. "They need to invest in preventive programs."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sleep study: Doctors, police officers among the most sleep-deprived