Questions about sleeping and waterbeds

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Do more people sleep badly? Sleep loss or disturbed sleep can heighten the risk for adolescents to take up smoking and drinking, two habits that may prove to be detrimental to their health, according to a research abstract that was presented at the 21st annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS). The study, conducted by Xianchen Liu, MD, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, was based on a questionnaire survey among 1,362 adolescents, with an average age of 14.6 years, in five high schools in China. The self-administered questionnaire collected data on sleep patterns, sleep problems, smoking and drinking behavior, behavioral and emotional problems, life stress, and demographic characteristics of the adolescent and family. The results showed that sleeping less than eight hours at night, frequent nightmares and difficulty initiating sleep were significantly associated with drinking. Furthermore, smoking was related to sleeping less than eight hours, bedtime later than midnight, nightmares, difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep and hypnotic medication use. "These findings demonstrate significant associations between sleep quantity and sleep disturbances and smoking and drinking in Chinese adolescents," said Liu. "Although prospective, longitudinal studies are warranted, these findings suggest a potential role of sleep intervention - that is, education in sleep hygiene and the treatment of sleep disturbances - in the prevention of adolescent substance use." The amount of sleep a person gets, affects his or her physical health, emotional well-being, mental abilities, productivity and performance. Recent studies associate lack of sleep with serious health problems such as an increased risk of depression, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes Over 40 of the population sleeps bad at night, but only 15% is actually aware of it. Stress, a nervous or a restless disposition, bad sleep hygiene and family related problems are the main cause for bad turbulent nights. This results in excessive tiredness the following day, which puts a burden on health and safety at home as well as on the road. Sleeping habits and sleep systems have remained the same through the ages, while our need for recuperation has changed because of society's rapid evolution. While previously manual labour was most common, today the mental exercise due to work and society, has taken a much larger role. So, many people don't recuperate as much as they need to. For a long time people were told to sleep on a hard mattress. Nowadays, scientists know better, but a lot of people still live with this misconception and torture their bodies unnecessarily every night. Sleeping habits vary in different cultures and change in time too, under the influence of society. The invention of artificial lighting has been a big part of this. The last decades have consciously shortened modern man's night's rest. We sleep less than people did last century. There aren't any scientific results yet regarding the impact of this shortening of sleep on a long-term scale.