Report: Hawaii leads nation in getting too little sleep
STAR-ADVERTISER / FEB. 1998
Motorcyclist Zed Carrol of Diamond Head took an afternoon nap at Kapiolani Park on his Honda 350cc “Scrambler.” Hawaii — often thought of as a peaceful vacation spot — has the lowest proportion of adults who get enough sleep every night.
NEW YORK » Tired of hearing that more than a third of U.S. adults don’t get enough sleep? Here’s something new: a government report about which states get the most sack time.
It says South Dakota has the largest proportion of residents who get at least seven hours of sleep each night.
Hawaii — often thought of as a peaceful vacation spot — has the lowest proportion.
Here’s the lowdown:
THE PROBLEM
For adults, the recommended amount of sleep is seven to nine hours each night. Past studies have found that more than one-third of U.S. adults get less. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released a new round of national survey data that found the same thing.
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Some of those people — nearly 10 percent of Americans, by some estimates — suffer chronic insomnia and may seek a physician’s help. Inadequate sleep has been tied to the start and worsening of a range of diseases and conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression.
THE STATES
The latest CDC report, based on surveys of more 444,000 adults in 2014, for the first time offers a look at findings in all 50 states. The Great Plains states led the nation in healthy sleep, buoyed by South Dakota, where 72 percent of those surveyed said they averaged at least 7 hours nightly.
The South and Appalachian states got the least sleep as a region. But Hawaii was the worst individual state, where 56 percent of respondents got the recommended amount of sleep. The report also found that while two-thirds of white people nationally got enough sleep, only about half of blacks, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders did.
THE RECOMMENDATION
The report didn’t dig into why certain states or racial groups got less sleep than others. Experts believe several factors could be involved. For example, people with steady jobs and normal work hours tend to get more sleep than others. Smoking and health problems also can rob people of sleep, said the CDC’s Anne Wheaton, one of the report’s authors.
Doctors offer tips for good sleeping that include sticking to a regular bedtime schedule, getting exercise each day and avoiding caffeine and nicotine at night.
27 responses to “Report: Hawaii leads nation in getting too little sleep”
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Headline should be that Hawai’i’s leaders are sleep walking.
Hawaii’s elected officials dream of over taxing its own residents.
Not too hard to figure out; weekday commuting traffic is terrible and the rail and all of rail, road and building construction is making it much WORSE. Even if the rail is finished from Hoopili to Ala Mo Center traffic will STILL be bad, actually worse. Therefore Hawaii residents who are not retired or are so rich OR poor they don’t need to work, will not get enough sleep when taking into account their drive times. Hawaii elected officials, just like Chris Christie’s staff, before they were fired, PURPOSELY try to increase drive times because they use that to justify the rail project, even though in reality the rail project will INCREASE everyone’s drive times. All this talk about closing down UH Manoa and moving to UH West Oahu will NEVER happen and Punahou, Iolani, St Louis, Maryknoll, Hanahauoli, St Franics, etc. will NEVER leave their properties and the DOE will NEVER improve so that underlying factor of why Oahu has gridlock traffic will ALWAYS be there. Ironic the homeless are NEVER sleep deprived as they don’t have to work or commute and get to basically sleep all day and night. Homeless and unemployed on government assistance have “lion” hours where male lions sleep 20 hours a day and female lions 15-18 hours a day.
PS: Remember long time ago at UH, students used to drive their cars to Manoa to find parking at 5am or earlier and then sleep in their cars. Recently seen some construction worker working in the Kakaako area and his wife or girlfriend do the same thing of sleeping in their car before they start work early in the morning. If you live in West Oahu and have to commute in town for work/school garans 8 out of 10 of those people will be sleep deprived. Also seems those living in “rich” East Oahu, in Hawaii Kai all the way to Portlock area also are getting stuck in gridlock traffic as well and cutting into their sleep times. Is the train to nowhere going to help them? No, their problem is the same as H1 freeway on/offramps in the area of UH Manoa/ Punahou, Iolani, Maryknoll, Hanahauoli, etc. are so backed up coming in from the East side they are getting it almost as bad as the West Oahu commuters. The solution with them again is NOT rail but some selective double decking of H1 and improved freeway offramp/on ramp flow in town near Makiki/Manoa to separate the school commuting traffic on main thoroughfares as much as possible from everyone else.
Your rail slant is a good one but the main reason why people in Hawaii is sleep deprived is because the politicians and government unions want to keep the populace minimally educated whereby the majority of people ended up with minimum wage needing to get two jobs just to make ends meet. The policitians don’t have the backbone to stand up to the thug union bosses and their minions and THE REAL TAX PAYERS getting fleeced with every turn. The only people who are probably getting enough sleep are those in government or who are working for the state government and then those who are welfare w#ores.
Rail is key as it sucks all the taxpayer money and desire to use federal highway funds to actually do REAL traffic improvement projects on Oahu to reduce gridlock traffic and subsequently reduce sleep deprivation for Oahu residents
hmmm…lets see…..traffic, working two or more jobs? Yep, that would do it!
Bumper sticker: Go to work. Millions on welfare are depending on your taxes to support them.
Due to having to compensate for the long commutes through the traffic horrors on the west side of the island.
I used to catch the bus and sleep. Can’t do that driving.
No can help. So many of us have to work two jobs, at least.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that in Dec. 2015, 5.2% of the employed population work multiple jobs. There is not a lot of information by state for multiple job-holders but in 2012, Hawaii did not even make the top ten list. (Wyoming was #10 with about 7% of the working population holding two or more jobs.) The idea that huge numbers of employed people must hold multiple jobs in Hawaii seems to be yet another urban myth.
Not much bedroom time.
It’s too noisy here and neither the Legislature, the Governor or HPD care.
I don’t mind the politicians talking if they made sense.
Traffic, traffic, traffic – anyone listening? This is not a major surprise!
And the kids driving and playing with the phone when the light turns green causes the driver behind to honk the horn.
Yup lack of sleep in Hawaii, we are number 1. Choke/neck 24/7 traffic has been an issue here for decades. Unfortunately it is only forecasted to get worse with H-1 traffic flow to erode from a D to an F (even with rail). One, the Gov, legislature do not think this is a problem and are not addressing this. Two, part of the solution is to better manage development…something that our leaders lack the where with all and the courage to do.
First thing that I did when I retired is to toss out the alarm clock. Now I can get more sleep without waking up the puppies.
And bikers like Mr. Zed wakes us up. Cap it, pal.
And living next to a HI5 fee redemption center clangs of glass bottles all day long.
I used to do my business in Kailua until the tourist infiltrated it. I rather avoid the crowd by doing my business in quiet, Kaneohe.
Ever hour either a noisy motorcycle or moped passes me by at home. I heard the brand new ones that are very quiet, though.
Two non union job or one union job.
Your luxury may be to work two jobs for a brand new car. My luxury is retiring early and enjoying my freedom.
Kailua town used to be so quiet before the tourist came that I could hear my ears ringing at the bus stop.
Maybe our law crazy legislature can make it illegal to be productive for more than 16 hours a day? The Nannies seem to have no end to their ambition.