Research into the link between disordered sleep and disease show an outsized burden on the most vulnerable. It's sounding alarms for sleep equity to have a place on the public health agenda, reports Ufrieda Ho.
Research into the link between disordered sleep and disease show an outsized burden on the most vulnerable. It's sounding alarms for sleep equity to have a place on the public health agenda, reports Ufrieda Ho.
Karine Scheuermaier is associate professor at the Wits University Brain Function Research Group. The country's oldest sleep laboratory founded in 1982 is based at the university's medical school in Parktown, Johannesburg. The Wits Brain Function Research Group's current range of research topics include the links between sleep and mental health after acute Covid-19 infection, how sleep fragmentation influences immune responses in young healthy women, how moderate versus intense exercise can modify sleep, and how changes in sleep are associated with appetite regulation.
Scheuermaier says quality sleep has the critical function of allowing blood pressure to drop. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, which is one of the leading causes of death in South Africa. In June last 2022, the American Heart Association added quality sleep of between seven and nine hours for adults to its cardiovascular health checklist.Dr Nomathemba Chandiwana is a director and principal scientist at the Ezintsha Research Centre in Johannesburg.
"We have very little African data on sleep disorders and disordered sleep," she says. She argues we need better data on things like how many people are affected by poor sleep, a better understanding of what is causing it and what it means, and then we need to present these findings to public health authorities to look at it as a public health issue.
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