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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Sleep Problems

Aired July 02, 2003 - 08:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: One in six Americans get just five hours of sleep a night. And there are new medications to help you do more on less sleep.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center with more on efforts to fight fatigue. And, boy, we know it well, don't we?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I was just going to say, morning anchor, Heidi -- how much sleep did you get last night?

COLLINS: Huh?

GUPTA: Yes, exactly. Well, people around getting enough sleep, and most Americans wish they were getting more. Take a look at some statistics now. If you compare now compared to 1942, on average, we get about 6.7 hours now. That was actually more than I thought. But back in 1942, we were getting an hour more. But even more remarkable more than that is little sleep more and more Americans are getting, again, compared from to 1942 to now, over the last 60 years. People just didn't used to sleep five hours or less. Only 3 percent of people did anyway back 60 years ago. And now 16 percent. People are trying to get by on less and less sleep, Heidi, just as you say.

And the pharmaceutical industry, this is a huge, huge part of their industry now, sleep medications, medications to help you sleep if you're not sleeping well. And medications to try and make you more awake if you didn't get a good night's sleep the night before.

Ambien and Sonota, two medications that people talk about a lot, Ambien has been around since 1993, about 10 years now. And part of the reason that this particular medication really took off was as a sleeping medication, it didn't give you that sort of groggy feeling the next day. It has what's called a short half-life, meaning when you take it, you'll fall asleep soon after you take it.

But when you wake up, the medication's pretty much going to be gone out of your system, so you don't have that sort of dazed or groggy sort of feeling the next day.

Even more sort of interesting, Heidi, are these sort of stimulant pills, pills to actually make you more awake. People have referred to them in all sorts of different names. Go pills are the ones that people oftentimes use in the military, pilots, to stay awake for long flights. Ritalin, another medication.

One of the more exciting ones now, Provigil is another one that's out there. This is sort of an appropriately named medication, trying to keep you vigilant for up to three days at a time, and this is a medication that people are talking more and more about.

So obviously, a huge industry to help you sleep, to help stay awake, if you didn't get a good night's sleep, and people want to try and get more of it -- Heidi.

COLLINS: So whatever happened to napping? I mean, can't you just take a nap? That's what I do. You know, we end the show at about 10:00, go back, take a nap, and pretend like I have a normal life and stay up until, you know 9:00 or so at night.

When your sleep is interrupted like that, are you actually doing your body a service or disservice?

GUPTA: Well, I think napping is a good thing, and your son is probably napping, but you don't get to nap anymore. That's just the reality of our lives, I think.

But most of the sleep experts we spoke to say even getting a 45- minute nap in during the day is a pretty good thing if you can do that. Oftentimes, there is such a thing known as sleep debt, which means if you're not getting enough sleep, you're going to have to catch up with that at some point.

There are a lot of problems with people not getting enough sleep. There's a lot of -- besides us not feeling well rested, you can take a look at the list of things. Crankiness, that's something we all get if we're not getting enough sleep. But also, more seriously, increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, a weakened immune system, upset metabolism. People who sleep more and more probably don't have a quick enough metabolism, and they're actually putting on enough pounds because they're sleeping so much. So there's all sorts of things linked to poor sleep habits as well -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Crankiness? Who's cranky?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN Center. Thank you so much.

GUPTA: Good to see you. Bye-bye.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired July 2, 2003 - 08:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: One in six Americans get just five hours of sleep a night. And there are new medications to help you do more on less sleep.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center with more on efforts to fight fatigue. And, boy, we know it well, don't we?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I was just going to say, morning anchor, Heidi -- how much sleep did you get last night?

COLLINS: Huh?

GUPTA: Yes, exactly. Well, people around getting enough sleep, and most Americans wish they were getting more. Take a look at some statistics now. If you compare now compared to 1942, on average, we get about 6.7 hours now. That was actually more than I thought. But back in 1942, we were getting an hour more. But even more remarkable more than that is little sleep more and more Americans are getting, again, compared from to 1942 to now, over the last 60 years. People just didn't used to sleep five hours or less. Only 3 percent of people did anyway back 60 years ago. And now 16 percent. People are trying to get by on less and less sleep, Heidi, just as you say.

And the pharmaceutical industry, this is a huge, huge part of their industry now, sleep medications, medications to help you sleep if you're not sleeping well. And medications to try and make you more awake if you didn't get a good night's sleep the night before.

Ambien and Sonota, two medications that people talk about a lot, Ambien has been around since 1993, about 10 years now. And part of the reason that this particular medication really took off was as a sleeping medication, it didn't give you that sort of groggy feeling the next day. It has what's called a short half-life, meaning when you take it, you'll fall asleep soon after you take it.

But when you wake up, the medication's pretty much going to be gone out of your system, so you don't have that sort of dazed or groggy sort of feeling the next day.

Even more sort of interesting, Heidi, are these sort of stimulant pills, pills to actually make you more awake. People have referred to them in all sorts of different names. Go pills are the ones that people oftentimes use in the military, pilots, to stay awake for long flights. Ritalin, another medication.

One of the more exciting ones now, Provigil is another one that's out there. This is sort of an appropriately named medication, trying to keep you vigilant for up to three days at a time, and this is a medication that people are talking more and more about.

So obviously, a huge industry to help you sleep, to help stay awake, if you didn't get a good night's sleep, and people want to try and get more of it -- Heidi.

COLLINS: So whatever happened to napping? I mean, can't you just take a nap? That's what I do. You know, we end the show at about 10:00, go back, take a nap, and pretend like I have a normal life and stay up until, you know 9:00 or so at night.

When your sleep is interrupted like that, are you actually doing your body a service or disservice?

GUPTA: Well, I think napping is a good thing, and your son is probably napping, but you don't get to nap anymore. That's just the reality of our lives, I think.

But most of the sleep experts we spoke to say even getting a 45- minute nap in during the day is a pretty good thing if you can do that. Oftentimes, there is such a thing known as sleep debt, which means if you're not getting enough sleep, you're going to have to catch up with that at some point.

There are a lot of problems with people not getting enough sleep. There's a lot of -- besides us not feeling well rested, you can take a look at the list of things. Crankiness, that's something we all get if we're not getting enough sleep. But also, more seriously, increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, a weakened immune system, upset metabolism. People who sleep more and more probably don't have a quick enough metabolism, and they're actually putting on enough pounds because they're sleeping so much. So there's all sorts of things linked to poor sleep habits as well -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Crankiness? Who's cranky?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN Center. Thank you so much.

GUPTA: Good to see you. Bye-bye.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com