ABSTRACT
A variety of cultural, social, psychological, behavioral, pathophysiological, and environmental factors inˆuence an individual’s sleep pattern and associated quantity and quality of sleep. Moreover, societal changes can inˆuence these patterns. In the modern society, we have seen the introduction of longer working hours, more shift work, and 24/7 availability of commodities. These changes have been paralleled by secular trends of curtailed duration of sleep to fewer hours per day across westernized populations (Akerstedt and Nilsson 2003). This has led to increased reporting of fatigue, tiredness, and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) (Bliwise 1996). There is now a growing body of evidence to support an epidemiological link between quantity of sleep (short and long duration of sleep) and cardio-metabolic risk factors, including obesity (Cappuccio et al. 2008). The deleterious effects of sleep deprivation can be seen on a variety of systems within the body, with detectable changes in metabolic (Knutson et al. 2007; Spiegel et al. 2009), endocrine (Spiegel et al. 1999; Taheri et al. 2004), and immune pathways (Miller and Cappuccio 2007).
