The Sleep Health Foundation has published the results from its recently conducted national survey that found approximately 20 per cent of Australians are living with ongoing exhaustion and fatigue simply because they are not getting sufficient sleep on a regular basis.
In a recent ABC report, the results from the new study released by the Sleep Health Foundation showed that around 16 per cent of the people that were surveyed said that they were sleep deprived every night and around 19 per cent of the participants said that feeling lethargic got in the way and mad daily tasks difficult to complete.
When they conducted the survey the Sleep Health Foundation looked closely at the sleep behavior of 1500 adults. What they found was that one out of five people stated that their capacity to complete daily tasks and how they felt was significantly influenced by a lack of or bad quality sleep.
The chairman of the Sleep Health Foundation Professor David Hillman said that people that feel sleepy might be more at risk of having an accident either while driving or within their workplace.
Professor Hillman said that people tend to miscalculate the quantity of sleep that they need on a daily basis. They tend to believe that they can live with less sleep because they are either used to it or have taught themselves to though according to the Professor this doesn’t work.
He said that on average an adult needs a minimum of 7.5 to eight of sleep nightly, if it is less daily life can be seriously impacted.
Professor Hillman said that mood disorders are more common in those that suffer from sleep deprivation. These people are more likely to exist rather than enjoy life, which is not the ideal way to live.
He said that there is a competition between sleep and other time consuming activities such as work, family and social lives with sleep seeming to be a low priority.
Peter Cutforth is a Director at Urban E-Learning, a global elearning and web strategy firm based in George St Brisbane. Peter's interests extend to training, safety and compliance, online marketing, and Mobile Apps.
