Sleep, Health, and Society

Sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation are common in modern society. Increasingly populations have been subjected to a steady constant decline in the number of hours devoted to sleep, due to changes in a variety of environmental and social conditions. Through the application of epidemiological methods of investigation sleep deprivation has been shown to be associated with a variety of chronic conditions and health outcomes, detectable across the entire lifespan, from childhood to adulthood to older age.

Sleep medicine is rapidly being recognised as a growing area of clinical medicine, affecting wide-ranging specialists including respiratory physicians, neurologists, cardiologists and psychiatrists. However, it also has huge implications in the fields of epidemiology, public health, and preventive medicine.

This book summarises for the first time the epidemiological evidence linking sleep deprivation and disruption to several chronic conditions, and explores the public health implications with the view to developing preventive strategies. It will appeal to both preventive medicine specialists, sleep researchers, and clinicians involved in the various specialities that impact upon this growing field.

About the series
By looking at public health issues from a unique condition-based approach, the innovative From Aetiology to Public Health series examines top public health issues from aetiology through to public health and prevention.

Future titles in the series
Chronic Pain Epidemiology, edited by P Croft, F Blyth, and D van der Windt
Obesity Epidemiology, edited by D Crawford, R Jeffrey, K Ball, and J Brug
Respiratory Epidemiology, edited by J Jaakkola, M Jaakkola, G Viegi, and M Eisner