Americans Don’t Get Enough Sleep (video)

A staggering number of Americans say they don't get enough sleep. National Geographic explores the science behind sleep and the dangers of not getting enough of it.  

If you’re getting less than six hours of sleep per night, then you’re cognitively impaired.

So how much sleep does the average American get?

Less than seven hours of sleep per night, according to a survey from the National Geographic Channel. 40% of Americans are sleep deprived.

Sleepless in America explores the science of sleep, and the repercussions of not getting enough of it—from health issues to car accidents (about 100,000 collisions are caused by fatigue each year) and even major oil spills.

Want to learn more? You can watch excerpts from the Sleepless in America documentary.

And if these statistics are making you wonder about your own sleep habits, you might want to check out the latest mindfulness practice from Mindful magazine, “5 Steps to Wind Down and Fall Asleep.” Shelby Freeman Harris, a clinical psychologist and director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, takes you through a grounding exercise to help you get some quality shut-eye.

[Model Photo: Colourbox.com]