A survey conducted over 10 years by Taipei Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Sleep Center indicated that about 11.3 percent of Taiwanese aged 16 and older suffer from chronic insomnia, with the condition affecting more women than men.
The Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine commissioned the repeat cross-sectional survey, which gives an overview of sleeping disorders in Taiwanese.
The prevalence of chronic insomnia in the most recent survey was similar to the results of a 2006 survey, which found 11.5 percent of respondents suffering from the condition, but the percentage of women, and older people had increased, the results showed.
Insomnia is indicated by three types of difficulties with sleep, Sleep Center director Chen Ning-hung (陳濘宏) said.
If people cannot fall asleep within 30 minutes of going to bed, find it difficult to fall back to sleep after waking up during the night, or wake up earlier than expected, then they are considered insomniac, Chen said.
If the symptoms occur more than three times per week and persist for more than three months, then the condition is considered chronic, Chen said.
The average duration of a respondents’ sleep and level of satisfaction increased in this year’s survey, Chen said.
In 2006, the average sleep duration on weekdays and weekends was 6.67 hours and 7.40 hours respectively, while in last year’s survey the averages were 6.86 hours and 7.51 hours respectively, while the level of satisfaction had increased from 70.6 percent to 76.4 percent, the poll showed.
However, the results showed that 16.7 percent of respondents aged from 50 to 59 were suffering from chronic insomnia, while the rate in people aged from 60 to 69 was 22.7 percent.
Both numbers had risen since the 2006 survey and were significantly higher than the average prevalence rate.
While other chronic illnesses can affect sleep, people in their 50s or 60s are possibly at the peaks of their careers or facing retirement, and stress is likely to be the main cause of sleeplessness, but that hypothesis requires further analysis, Chen said.
The survey found that while about 8.6 percent of men suffered insomnia, up to 13.9 percent of women complained of the condition, Sleep Center clinical psychologist Wu Chia-shuo (吳家碩) said, adding that menstruation cycles, pregnancy, menopause and hormonal changes can trigger the condition.
The study also showed that taking care of children or housekeeping duties are major factors that affect women’s sleep, he said.
People who suffer from sleep disorders are now more willing to seek medical treatment, with the survey indicating that 34.7 percent said they were amenable to the idea, compared with 20.2 percent in the 2006 survey, Chen said, adding that people should consult a doctor before taking medication.
People should not use digital devices for at least 30 minutes before they go to sleep, because the blue light can suppress melatonin production and make it harder for people to fall asleep and not to wake up, Wu said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching