美睡眠调查 西弗吉尼亚州最缺觉

Sleepless in Seattle? Hardly. West Virginia is where people are really staying awake, according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness.

West Virginians' lack of sleep was about double the national rate, perhaps a side effect of health problems such as obesity, experts said.

Nearly 1 in 5 West Virginians said they did not get a single good night's sleep in the previous month. The national average was about 1 in 10, according to a federal health survey conducted last year and released Thursday.

Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma also were notably above average in their reported lack of sleep. In contrast, North Dakota had fewer problems sleeping, with only 1 in 13 reporting that degree of sleeplessness.

Health officials do not know the exact reasons for the differences.

"We didn't ask 'Why didn't you get enough rest or sleep?'" said Lela McKnight-Eily, an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who led the study.

But experts noted several possible explanations: West Virginia ranks at or near the bottom of the nation in several important measurements of health, including obesity, smoking, heart disease and the proportion of adults with disabilities. Studies have increasingly found sleeping problems in people with certain health problems, including obesity.

"You would expect to see poorer sleep within a chronically diseased population," noted Darrel Drobnich of the National Sleep Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization.

Some experts believe sleep-deprived people are more inclined to eat fatty foods during the day.

"There's growing evidence sleep deprivation promotes obesity," said Dr. Ronald Chervin, a University of Michigan sleep disorders expert.

Financial stress and odd-hour work shifts can play roles in sleeplessness, too, Chervin added. He suggested those may be contributing factors in West Virginia, an economically depressed state with tens of thousands of people working in coal mining.

Thursday's report was based on results of an annual telephone survey of more than 400,000 Americans, including at least 3,900 in each state. The survey did not include people who use only cell phones.

西雅图不眠夜？恐怕不一定。美国首个有关各州睡眠情况的政府调查显示，西弗吉尼亚州的人们最缺乏睡眠。

专家称，西弗吉尼亚州的睡眠不足发生率约为全国值的两倍，这可能是由肥胖等健康问题造成的。

近五分之一的西弗吉尼亚州居民称，他们在之前的一个月没有睡过一个好觉。上周四公布的一项去年开展的联邦健康调查显示，全美的睡眠不足率约为十分之一。

田纳西州、肯塔基州和俄克拉荷马州所报告的睡眠不足率也明显高于全国水平。而相比之下，北达科他州的睡眠问题较少，十三人中仅有一人称自己有那种程度的失眠。

目前，健康官员尚不清楚造成这种差别的具体原因。

负责此项研究的美国疾病防控中心的流行病学家莱拉•麦克耐特-艾莉说：“我们并没有提出‘为什么你没有得到足够的休息或者睡眠？’这一问题。”

但专家提出了几种可能的解释：西弗吉尼亚州的几项重要健康指标都处于或接近全国最低水平，其中包括肥胖、吸烟、心脏病以及成年人残疾的比例。越来越多的研究发现有某些健康问题的人存在睡眠问题，如肥胖。

非赢利性倡导和研究机构美国睡眠基金会的德洛•布尼奇指出：“患有慢性疾病的人群睡眠较差。”

一些专家认为，睡眠不足的人在白天更想吃高脂肪的食品。

密歇根大学的睡眠紊乱专家罗纳德•谢尔文博士说：“越来越多的证据表明，睡眠不足会导致肥胖。”

谢尔文称，经济压力和频繁倒班也会导致失眠。他认为西弗吉尼亚的睡眠问题可能也与这些因素有关。该州的经济状况不佳，很多人在煤矿工作。

上周四发布的这份调查报告基于一项对40多万美国人开展的年度电话调查的结果，每州至少有3900人参与。该调查不包括只使用手机的用户。

Vocabulary:

epidemiologist：流行病学家

chronically：having long had a disease, habit, weakness, or the like（慢性地，长期地）

sleep disorder：a disturbance of the normal sleep pattern（睡眠障碍，失眠）