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Can't sleep? Get off the phone

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They are up and active online at ungodly hours, lamenting their struggles to fellow sufferers. Some will their condition away, hoping that watching yet another episode of a TV series will do the trick.

These night-time loners are all sleepless in South Africa.

They’re part of a global community that according to Malin Eriksson, spokesperson for sleep tracking mobile app Sleep Cycle, not only struggles to sleep, but also stresses about not sleeping well enough, leading to more hurdles in falling asleep.

In the end, sleep draws the short straw as the sleepless turn to social media, the news and the overall high flow of information.

Poor sleep has been long reported in numerous scientific studies to lead to a weakened immune system, anxiety and depression, hypertension, obesity and a lower sex drive.

The app tracked the sleep cycle of 974 956 South African male and female users, aged between 18 and 75, and found that, on average, they slept for seven hours and 13 minutes.

But there are outliers, those who struggle to sleep.

“Poor sleep is known to decrease productivity and creativity, and it has a bad influence on your social skills as well. If you don’t get enough sleep, your time at work becomes an uphill struggle in results and relations, limiting your possibilities to reach your goals. Even if you’re not on the hunt for a career, just getting enough sleep to stay nice is as good a reason as any.

“A good or even just okay amount of sleep leads to better memory and decision making, while sleep deprivation increases the risk of suffering from mood swings, forgetfulness, depression and anxiety,” Eriksson said.

“Daytime drowsiness – for those who struggle with sleep – lowers energy levels and makes it difficult to stick to diet plans. Hence when you’re tired you’re more likely to reach for that quick chocolate bar instead of a nutritious meal.”

From as far back as TV producer Tsholofelo Semenya (26) can remember, she has struggled with sleep.

“I’d be up at 11pm, when no six-year-old should be. In puberty, I used to sleep a lot during the day. I loved a good afternoon nap then struggled to fall asleep at night. I was half-asleep at school, during the day, which meant that during the morning I wasn’t really present,” she says.

Her early career as a producer for an early morning radio show only added to her sleep woes. Semenya had to get to the office at 3am and stay until noon, but would stay for the rest of the day, researching and compiling the next day’s show. She now works a 2pm to 11pm shift, but only gets to sleep at between 3am and 4am.

“I’ll get home and chill, watch series or get on my phone. I can’t sleep in the dark, so I always have to have a screen on, even if it’s on mute. The only thing I hate about it is that I am not as productive as I know I can be. I am very productive at work, but in terms of doing things around the house or errands, I could be doing so much more,” she said.

Semenya suffers from insomnia, which according to the SA Society of Sleep Medicine affects between 30% and 40 % of adults, with about 10% to 15% of them indicating theirs as being chronic or severe.

According to the society, insomnia is an experience of inadequate or poor quality sleep, characterised by difficulty falling and maintaining sleep, among other symptoms. The prevalence increases with age and is more common in women than men.

According to a 2014 paper, titled “Sleepless in South Africa: Insomnia is not just a night-time problem”, healthy individuals usually sleep for seven to nine hours each night, although the timing, duration and internal structure of their sleep may vary.

Normally, we experience two distinct brain states during sleep – rapid eye movement sleep, during which dreaming occurs, and non-rapid eye movement sleep.

The paper identified four distinct phases within this state. Stage one indicates the transition from wakefulness to the onset of sleep. Stage two is classified as light sleep, during which the body temperature drops and the muscles relax. Stages three and four are known as “slow-wave” sleep or deep sleep, and are a prerequisite for feeling refreshed on awakening.

A study published on Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that sleeping for less than six hours a night, or having fragmented sleep, raises one’s risk of subclinical multiterritorial atherosclerosis – dangerous plaque in arteries throughout one’s body.

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