Welcome to NSART!

Why Sleep Awareness Is Important

Sleep is a basic necessity of life, as important to our health as nutrition and exercise.  When we sleep well, we wake up feeling refreshed, alert and ready to face daily challenges. When we don't, every part of our lives can suffer, including our jobs, relationships, productivity, health, safety and general well-being.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that sleep-related problems affect 50 to 70 million Americans of all ages and socioeconomic classes.  Sleep disorders are common in both men and women; however, important disparities in prevalence and severity of certain sleep disorders have been identified in minorities and underserved populations. The cumulative effects of sleep loss and sleep disorders represent an under-recognized public health problem and have been associated with a wide range of health consequences including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, stroke, and at-risk behaviors – all of which represent long-term targets of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other public health agencies.

For these reasons, public health surveillance systems must be expanded to properly measure how sleep deprivation and untreated sleep disorders contribute to mortality, other medical conditions, motor-vehicle crashes and work-related accidents.  Furthermore, broad-based awareness and education programs aimed at the general public and health care professionals are needed to ensure that people learn good sleep habits and/or are successfully diagnosed and treated for sleep disorders.