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Are you getting enough sleep each night? A better question might be, do you know how much sleep you should be getting each night?

The Mayo Clinic and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that adults need at least seven hours of sleep each night. Anything less can lead to insufficient sleep. At least 70 million Americans experience insufficient sleep.

According to a new study, millions of Americans aren't getting enough sleep and that can have real consequences. While many of us start the new year off thinking about getting healthy, most of the time that is focused on diet and working out, but not getting enough sleep can hurt your health as well.

According to a study from RetailMeNot, 36.2% of American adults say they sleep less than 7 hours each night. In Lubbock, that number is around 35.2% of adults. That's a lot of people in Lubbock who are waking up each morning not feeling well and that feeling can continue through the day.

So what leads to people sleeping too little? According to RetailMeNot, there are many factors, including a device you might be reading this article on.

One example is technology, as people spend more time in front of brightly-lit devices that disrupt the body’s natural circadian rhythms. But more fundamental patterns of working and living are also at play. Factors like longer commutes and longer working hours in the U.S. workforce may be key reasons why a good night’s rest is harder to come by.

I know I'm guilty of having my phone on right before I go to sleep and then in the middle of the night I find myself checking the phone again. There is no reason to, it's just there. And if you find something interesting on your phone and stay up watching more videos or looking at social media, it can really mess up your sleep.

We should all be living better. Let's start with sleeping better at night.

 

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