People are losing sleep over a struggling economy.

“The number of people we see who are experiencing insomnia is increasing, and that’s attributable at least in part to worries about the economy,” said Dr. Alfred Habel, a sleep physician and director of the Sleep Disorder Center at Kenosha Medical Center.

The center performs overnight studies that monitor patients as they sleep and identify problems such as sleep apnea and insomnia.

A first-ever national survey of sleep habits among 400,000 adults by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that just 3 in 10 felt they had gotten a good night’s sleep every evening in the past month; 11 percent said they hadn’t enjoyed a really restful night in at least a month.

The survey numbers, along with earlier research, suggest that as many as 70 million Americans can be considered as having chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders, CDC researchers said.

“I definitely believe those numbers,” Habel said. “Most of our patients — 75 percent — suffer from sleep apnea, but we’re seeing much more stress-related insomnia.”

These days, one in four of his patients falls into that category — with difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, he said.

People are tossing and turning due to anxiety over job security, eroded 401k plans, the real-estate slump and economic uncertainty.

“They aren’t sleeping well because they have a lot on their minds,” Habel said.

The CDC study also confirms earlier research about who has more sleep difficulties: more women than men; more young than old (retirees in particular seem to sleep better); more people with higher education levels than those without a high school diploma; more Latinos and blacks than whites.

Habel cited studies disputing the notion that women sleep worse than men.

“It’s interesting because women complain more of poor sleep (as reported in surveys like this), but if you actually study them they sleep better than men,” Habel said. “Subjectively, they don’t sleep as well as men. Objectively, they sleep better.”

Lack of sleep can impair a person’s ability to drive or operate machinery and reduce overall quality of life.

“Sleep involves one-third of your life,” Habel said. “Sleep-deprivation can affect a person’s mood, concentration and attention. It affects other diseases as well. If you don’t sleep, that pretty much makes everything worse.”

Too often, primary-care physicians minimize the significance of sleep disturbances, he said.

“They’re more pressed for time to deal with conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes,” he said. “If patients say they aren’t sleeping well, that’s a lower priority.”

What should an insomnia sufferer do?

“If it gets bad enough to where it’s interfering with their daily life and ability to function, it needs medical evaluation,” he said. “I’m not trying to push my business, but sleep disorders should not be minimized.”

Experts say it’s time to get off the road, at least for a coffee break and maybe a 20-minute nap, if you experience:

—Difficulty keeping focus or keeping reveries or daydreams at bay.

—Being unable to remember the last few miles driven.

—Drifting across lanes, onto berms or tailgating.

—Trouble keeping your head up, yawning repeatedly, and frequent blinking.

—Feeling restless, irritable or aggressive.

SOURCE: Scripps Howard News Service