Health could be at risk without enough sleep

If you’ve fallen asleep at your desk lately, it’s no wonder. More than a third of Americans get less than seven hours of sleep each night — a deficit that could put their health at risk, a new report says.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed sleep surveys of 74,571 adults in 12 states and is offering up its findings in a report released Thursday, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune.

In questions about habits within the prior 30 days, almost 38 percent of respondents said they had fallen asleep by accident and almost 5 percent said they had nodded off or fallen asleep while driving.

For multi-taskers pushing the envelope, it’s worth noting that the National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per day for adults and 10 to 11 hours for school-age children.

“Sleep difficulties, some of which are preventable, are associated with chronic diseases, mental disorders, health-risk behaviors, limitations of daily functioning, injury and mortality,” said the report, officially named the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

National Sleep Awareness Week is March 7 to 13.

CDC: Asthma becoming more prevalent

 Asthma seems to be increasing a little, and nearly 1 in 12 Americans now say they have the respiratory disease, federal health officials said Wednesday.

About 8.2 percent of Americans had asthma in a 2009 national survey of about 40,000 individuals. That’s nearly 25 million people with asthma, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

The rate had been holding steady at a little under 8 percent for the previous four years.

Better diagnostic efforts could be part of the reason for the increase. They were believed to be a main reason for an increase in asthma seen from 1980 through 1995, said Dr. Lara Akinbami, a medical officer at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Asthma is a chronic disease involving attacks of impaired breathing. Symptoms may include coughing, wheezing, and chest pain.

It can be fatal. Health officials estimate more than 3,000 U.S. asthma deaths occur each year.