For most of us, sleep is a part of our lives we take for granted.  But maybe we shouldn’t because there is a considerable amount of evidence and research that shows not getting enough sleep, restful sleep, or living with a sleeping disorder can have a great impact on one’s health and quality of life.

Between and third and a fifth of Americans say they don’t get enough sleep. Nearly a third have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder. Half of Americans snore during sleep. 40 million say they fall asleep during the daytime.

Sleep plays a major role in our health and well being.

On The Spark we discussed sleep and why it’s an important part of our lives. Our guest was Dr. John Levri,  Sleep Medicine Physician and Systems Medical Director of Sleep Medicine with the UPMC Neurological Institute who explained why most of us aren't getting enough sleep,"I think if you had to give like a generalization, a lot of it's cultural, right. I think there's pretty good data showing that even from 50 years ago, on average in this country, we sleep an hour less than we used to. So certainly, there's some low hanging fruit. Our our TV shows, our devices that are pumping that light into our brains can delay that time. I think most people would agree that if they actually allow themselves to kind of wind down in a quiet, well-lit environment, they might fall asleep earlier than they allow themselves to."

Dr. Levri indicated we should be getting different amounts of sleep during different stages of life -- but that seven to nine hours a night works for most people.

Levri was asked about people who have trouble falling asleep,"insomnia is actually the most common sleep disorder reported. Now, there's a difference between acute and chronic insomnia. Acute insomnia is usually situational. The death of a relative, the ending of a relationship, the changing of job to some stressor in life is disrupting your sleep. Usually this resulted in three months without any intervention. So that's kind of I focus more on chronic insomnia, which I think what most patients who are going to come to a sleep clinic would probably be experiencing, and this is three nights per week for three months or more, having difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or both. And it's a difficult condition for a lot of reasons. It's difficult because there is this paradox that's very well documented and understood where the person experiencing their sleep. It's not always a great representation of what's actually occurring. It's called paradoxical insomnia. So the patient thinks I hear all the time, I don't sleep at all. Okay. And or I only sleep an hour or two. And when I hear this, I know that the patient's expressing how they feel rather than probably what's actually occurring neurologically. Because if someone was experiencing no sleep at all or only an hour or two for months on end or years on end, they wouldn't be able to sit up right and talk to me. They would be dead. Sleep deprivation of that extreme would not be compatible with life. And so a lot of insomnia is reassuring. Well, I know you're struggling. I know you feel bad, but some of this is some of this is is more how you feel than than what's occurring neurologically in the brain. And it's really hard to even now it's hard to explain that paradox. And so the other thing that can be difficult to convey about insomnia to patients is most of the time there's some other problem that's either causing or precipitating the insomnia. And so I focus a lot of my attention on finding those issues. And a lot of the time it's low hanging fruit like, an undiagnosed sleep disorder in my clinic, that's probably a lot more common than the general population, but certainly there's a lot of sleep apnea out there that's undiagnosed. And certainly that if you're not breathing well, I tell patients the brain eventually learns that it's not getting enough oxygen and will keep you from sleeping because the brain wants oxygen. It needs a lot of it. Right. And so, so undiagnosed sleep disorders weren't just run of the mill medical problems, things like hurting back a hurting neck, a rash that's itching, simple or simple medical issues can disrupt your sleep, right. And perpetuate insomnia. So I say, well, we might need to get your primary care doctor involved to work on some of those issues with you. Right? Then there's mental health or mental health in our sleep are so intrinsically entwined, sometimes it's hard to pick out which is which is bothering the other, right? Is it the poor mental health that's causing the sleep issues, or is it the poor sleep issues causing the mental health of both?"