The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a new study that revealed that American adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are not getting the enough quantity of sleep they need to be healthy.

The study features data from 444,306 participants and demonstrated that the lack of sleep is a public health problem that can cause obesity, diabetes, heart disease and mental illness.

According to Anne Wheaton, Ph.D., the author of the study, sleep is not in the top of the priority list of people.

Photo: iStockPhoto
Photo: iStockPhoto

“They know they should eat right, get exercise, quit smoking, but sleep just isn’t at the top of their board. And maybe they aren’t aware of the impact sleep can have on your health. It doesn’t just make you sleepy, but it can also affect your health and safety.” said Wheaton, as reported by CNN.

The CDC’s study also revealed that the problem has some geographical patterns. People from the plain regions of the US sleep more hours than people from other regions. South Dakota ranked as the top state for getting a good sleep.

On the contrary, people from the southern states like Alabama or Georgia sleep few hours per night, and people from Hawaii ended up being at last as the people who sleep the least.

The CDC recommends that adults get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. However, nearly one-third of the US adult population sleeps the recommended time.

Based on recent polls of more than 400,000 U.S. adults, nearly 1/3 reported getting fewer than the recommended 7 hours per night.

This study is the first to evaluate the lack of sleep as a big health problem on a state level.

Source: CDC