Sleeping Time Research

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29956, 18 October 1962, Page 17

Sleeping Time Research

(Special Crepat. LONDON, October 17. Only about M out of every IM persons sleep the regular seven or eight hours commonly believed to be necessary for health. About half the remainder get by with six hours or less. The rest sleep nine hours or more and a tiny minority •about two in every 100) has the luxury of more than 10 hours' slumber. These facts emerged from a survey made by doctors,

and summarised in the “Daily Express,” to discover how much and how well men and women are sleeping under stresses of modern civilised living. Nearly 2500 people in Glasgow and Dundee took part in a survey directed by medical officers of the Dundee Royal Mental Hospital. People were asked at what times they went to bed. dropped off to sleep, woke up. and got up. They were asked whether they were light or deep sleepers and if they needed sleeping pills. The survey found the average woman lay awake for

hours at night while her husband dropped off as soon as his head touched the pillow. It is women who wake up repeatedly and have difficulty getting off to deep again, while menfolk slumber on. It is women who feel tired out next day and it is women who feel compelled to take deeping pills. Even the best sleepers tend to deep progressively less as they get older. After 65. one person in every five sleeps only five hours or even less, because gradual reduction of physical exercise during the day lessens the need for restorative deep.