One in Five Americans 'Excessively Sleepy,' Study Finds

July 8, 2010— -- Americans often weigh more than people in Europe, and we've been accused of being louder and ruder. New research finds there is at least one more difference between Americans and Europeans.

Americans are often sleepier.

Nearly one in five Americans suffers from chronic "excessive sleepiness," according to a study presented today at the annual American Academy of Sleep Medicine meeting.

Researchers from Stanford University interviewed more than 8,000 adults about their sleeping habits, alertness, health and mental disorders. Of those, 19.5 percent fit the criteria for "moderate excessive sleepiness" and 17 percent of responders reported they had trouble staying awake and alert on the job, in meetings and in conversations.

"We have a problem in America with sleep," said Dr. Maurice Ohayon, principle investigator of the study and director of the Stanford University Sleep Epidemiology Research Center.

In 2002, Ohayon used the same techniques to study the general population in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

While nearly 20 percent of American responders suffered excessive sleepiness, only 15 percent of people in the five European countries studied suffered from the same degree of chronic exhaustion.

The pharmaceutical company Cephalon, which makes Provigil and Nuvigil for excessive sleepiness and narcolepsy, funded the study.

Although the survey responders were all in Texas, New York and California, Ohayon said the researchers were careful to survey people who were representative of the general population in the United States.

"Our study is not only about three states, the study is about all Americans," Ohayon said. "We've have seen the phenomenon getting worse and worse.

"Americans are sleepier and we know there's a reason: The American population is sleeping less than the European population," he said.

But some sleep specialists point out that it's difficult for doctors to quantify something as transitory as "sleepiness." In surveys, often there are biases between those who respond and those who don't. The greater the number of people who decline to respond, the less researchers know about the subject.