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Insomnia was more widespread than usual
across the United States after the September 11 attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, even among those
who live far from where the attacks took place, according
to the results of a survey.
The survey, from the National Sleep Foundation
(NSF), a research institute in Washington, DC, showed that
of the 993 American adults interviewed, 44% reported insomnia
during the days immediately following the attacks.
Sleep problems were more common among
women than among men. The region where a person lived played
no significant role in whether or not he or she experienced
insomnia, the poll results show.
According to the National Library of
Medicine, 25% of Americans
occasionally have insomnia, while insomnia
is chronic for about 10% of the population.
"Sleep problems frequently experienced
by those polled in the immediate aftermath of September 11th
included: difficulty falling asleep (44%), awakenings during
the night (48%) and waking up feeling unrefreshed (50%),"
a press release from the NSF states.
"Nearly two out of five respondents
(39%) said they awakened too early and couldn't get back to
sleep. Each of these sleep problems is characterized as a
symptom of insomnia by sleep experts," according to the
release.
The pollsters report that stress and
anxiety were the leading causes of frequent night awakenings.
"Among those who reported an inability
to sleep through the night, 71% attributed the problem to
stress and anxiety, while fear (33%), depression (32%) and
bad dreams (23%) were other reasons cited," the survey
found.
The NSF also found that 50% of females
surveyed, compared with 37% of males, reported that they frequently
had difficulty falling asleep in the aftermath of the attacks.
National
Sleep Foundation Survey Washington DC, November 29, 2001
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