Miguel Meira e Cruz, director of the European Sleep Center, considered this Wednesday, March 13, that sleep health literacy has improved in recent years, but said that there is still a lot of ignorance and lack of training in this area.
The official, who was speaking to the Lusa agency regarding World Sleep Day, which takes place on Friday, said that the response of Portuguese public health services in this area is “below what is desirable” and defended a greater focus on sleep care. primary healthcare, where professional training is scarce and the lack of time for the patient has therapeutic implications.
«The training of these professionals is still scarce in this matter. On the other hand, the time they have per consultation is often barely enough for the patient to open their mouth and speak,” said the specialist, highlighting that this has therapeutic implications, specifically in insomnia.
As he explained, according to the guidelines, Cognitive-behavioral therapy should be preferred over the use of medication. However, «it's less work and it's quicker to write a recipe than to spend time with systematized recommendations».
«The training of specialists in cognitive-behavioral therapy for sleep and insomnia (first line of treatment in primary insomnia) is very scarce and professionals are almost non-existent in the country», he insisted.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the first choice of intervention used in the treatment of chronic insomnia and encompasses a specific psychotherapeutic approach focused on the causes and symptoms of the problem.
Regarding the increase in cases of sleep disorders, he said that today these issues are seen “as something unequivocal”, whereas in the past there was a strong tendency to associate them with age, for example, and recalls that “normative hours” of sleep vary according to throughout life, but “less than those who ignore the science of sleep suppose”.
«For example, those old people who think it is natural to sleep less because they have grown older, may assume that this ease and wrong acceptance could be the cause of premature aging or greater health problems», he added, insisting: «it is true that if sleep differently, but the premise of sleep is the same at any age – recovering and feeling better after doing it».
Citing a study by the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology, which concluded that around half of Portuguese people have unsatisfactory or insufficient sleep, with 75% sleeping less than seven hours/night, Miguel Meira e Cruz reminds that the reasons for not sleeping can be diverse and not all treated the same way.
“The cost [of not sleeping] is high, even for a single night,” he warned.
In this regard, he recalls that sleep medicine “involves practically all organs and systems” and that, when we don’t sleep, some functions “fail”.
«Some of the dysfunctions associated with sleep restriction are cardiometabolic», he exemplified, highlighting the fact that they are the first cause of death in a large part of the world, «preventable and with direct and indirect, individual and collective costs».
He also said that sleep restriction is also related to memory, attention, learning, immune changes and even cancer.
The specialist also argues that, in sleep problems, «a problem rarely comes alone», as comorbidity (having several diseases) «is highly prevalent», whether from other sleep diseases (insomnia + apnea), or the coexistence of diseases sleep problems with psychiatric illnesses such as anxiety or depression.
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