NEW YORK, Sep 15 (Reuters Health) -- Sleep disorders are common among weary commuters who spend upwards of 2 hours each day commuting to work in New York City on the Long Island Rail Road, say researchers.
"Commuting long distances negatively impacts one's ability to capture adequate sleep," according to the report, published in the journal Sleep.
Dr. Joyce A. Walsleben, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at New York University School of Medicine and colleagues in New York and Cleveland, Ohio, studied the sleep habits of 21,000 rail commuters, analyzing the results in terms of length of commute. A short commute was defined as less than 45 minutes, while a long commute was defined as greater than 75 minutes.
Not surprisingly, the researchers report that those with long commutes got less sleep during the week than those with shorter commutes. What is clear from this survey, Walsleben told Reuters Health, is that "a lot of commuters cut their sleep short, but additionally, the sleep they do get is probably not as good as it could be because they have unrecognized or untreated sleep disorders."
For example, Walsleben said, "8% of commuters had specific symptoms of sleep apnea." Sleep apnea, where breathing problems interfere with sleep, was associated with "increased reports of excessive daytime sleepiness, and history of hypertension, diabetes and obesity," the researchers write.
Walsleben's group also found that a significant proportion of commuters had symptoms of insomnia and were self-medicating with alcohol and things of that nature. Over half of the sample reported difficulty sleeping and staying awake and only 3% sought help for it, they report.
Speaking about the commuters' slowness in seeking help for their sleep problems, Walsleben said, "I don't know whether that's because they don't recognize it or whether their doctor doesn't recognize it."
"The message for the physician is to recognize sleep-related symptoms as disorders and not just decide that, 'well you're burning the candle at both ends and of course you're feeling sleepy,'" she recommended.
But getting more sleep may also require social change, Walsleben said. "In an industrialized society, we are always trying to grab the extra hour of work as opposed to the extra hour of sleep. And we have to educate the public that sleep has to have a priority in their life if they are to function better."
