Riyadh Expats

Sleep Affects Your Whole Body And Soul

General Information Others

2019-May-15

Sleep is a very important biological procedure that has repeatedly been related to human physiological, psychological and neurological systems well-being. A longtime body of studies over the years has strongly linked the importance of restorative sleep to cellular restore, neurobehavioral balance, memory, and learning maintain homeostasis, and metabolic functions maintenance. Epidemiological and experimental research points out that there is a probable link between sleep disturbances is a dangerous thing for a seriously harmful result on health.

Moreover, researches that compare the share of injuries and casualties resulting from human error in the enterprise, telecommunications range, and transport, however, are consistent in pointing closer to the effect of the sleep disturbances on sunlight hour’s sleepiness and well-known low vigilance. It could be speculated that cognitive and motor impairment because of sleep disturbances are the primary factors behind the dropped levels of awareness culminating such human mistakes.

Sleeping Patterns

Preceding research highlights those human beings around the world sleep in a different way. Those sleeping patterns were attributed to more likely associated factors, of which is culture and ethnicity. Several pieces of research aimed to highlight the particular cultural factors that can be related to constructing the Saudi population drowsing pattern architecture. This fuels the significance of figuring out the sleeping characteristics of the Saudi population.

The motive behind accomplishing this present day examines is to describe the sleeping traits and disturbances amongst Saudi adults because of a strong point in their environmental and cultural troubles catalyzed by a quick modernization.

Saudi Arabia Problem

Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, had a population of 5 million (approximately) between October 2014 – March 2015. A cross-sectional study approved by the Institutional Review Board, King Fahd Medical City, Riyadh was conducted using 1720 adults (aged 18 and above) inhabitants of the 5 major regions in Riyadh. All the participants who completed the assigned questionnaire were included as a part of the study, which had no specific exclusion criteria.

The research was done to Evaluate the Sleeping Pattern

The self-administered questionnaire aimed to evaluate the sleeping pattern of the participants and took their smoking history into active consideration. The results revealed that 1369 participants of 1720 completed the self-administered questionnaire; 76.1% of response rate. The data generated shows that 38.4% (~526 adults) of the group did not have disturbed sleep, while 34.4% (~470 adults) claimed to have a possibility of disturbed sleep and 27.3% (~373 adults) confirmed a disturbance of sleep pattern. It was also observed that sleep disturbance was higher amongst women than men, with a statistical difference measuring to p<0.0001. Adults who were then unemployed and housewives reported a greater amount of disturbance of their sleep cycle. However, it is well said, that people go for a good sound sleep on portable beds which are very comfortable.

Reasons for Lack of Sleep

Use of technology like mobile phones, social media, and televisions amidst the residents of Saudi are being attributed to causing an impact on their lifestyle and exacerbating the sleep patterns. Additionally, non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular conditions have also found to be impacted by a disturbed sleep cycle. The restless leg syndrome, categorized as a condition caused due to the disorder of sleep wherein the patient experiences a lowered blood circulation in the lower limbs, and sleep apnea which is correlated to Asthma is examples of the effects of sleep cycle disturbance. Despite the strong evidence development of plans and medication for sleep health care is not easily available. The KSA has identified the major challenges to be a lack of awareness of the prevalence and harmful artifacts of sleep disorders, trained specialists to treat the condition and shortage of funds for unavailability of sleep medication.

Cross-Sectional Studies

The study administered to generate the data has certain limitations that question the quality of data generated. Cross-sectional studies offer a limitation in terms of the casualness of the survey conducted and a lack of scientific baseline. A self-administered questionnaire is strongly affected by an overestimation of truth; measuring the time spent in bed versus actually being asleep. This limits the information being evaluated thereby generating a higher recall bias. Future studies where laboratory data measurement in conjunction with questionnaires makes up the survey would serve as a stronger metric and generate additional gravity in the findings.

The responders who responded with a ‘maybe’ to the questionnaire contributed to an overestimation of the sleep cycle disturbance measurements. Drawing from previously conducted studies, where the understanding of wordings by responders was taken into consideration, suggests adding a ‘don’t know’ or ‘maybe’ response options for participants who are ambiguous about their response.

The current study in concordance with previous studies conducted confirms the adverse health effects of social media and technology on the personal and professional lives of the evaluated population. The cross-sectional study addresses and elaborates upon the link between short sleep cycles and the sociodemographic factors of the Saudi residents; adding significant value to the current literature on sleep disturbance.

Different Kinds of Studies

Additional studies, like cohort studies that are shorter in length along with longitudinal studies that span a longer time period, are recommended for data collection and an evaluation of the professional performance, sleep patterns and overall health status of people. The findings from the recommended studies, when combined with results found in the current study, would help with the establishment of public health policies to enhance awareness of the artifacts of sleep cycle disturbance. Generating awareness amidst people about the ramifications of sleep inadequacy and offering solutions to address this concern would be extremely beneficial with establishing public health policies.

Conclusion

The study evaluated the sleeping habits of Saudi adults and identifies sleep cycle disturbance to be prevalent. The study also highlights the harmful effects of a lack of sleep on the health of the participants; social and biological. However, due to the nature of this study’s design, the cross-sectional design and self-administered evaluations, substantially increase the recall bias as the responses might tend to be exaggerated. Establishing public health policies that stress the importance of sleep will benefit substantially by combining a laboratory-based evaluation with the modified self-administered questionnaires for evaluating sleep cycle patterns of Saudi residents.

Sleep Affects Your Whole Body And Soul

Sleep Affects Your Whole Body And Soul

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