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Dartmouth Medical School Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Vital Signs

Facts & Figures

Sounding the alarm about sleep

50 to 70 million
Number of U.S. adults with chronic sleep or wakefulness disorders

7 to 9
Hours of sleep a night recommended for adults

35%
Percentage of adults who sleep less than 7 hours a night

8.5 to 9.25
Hours of sleep a night recommended for teens

85%
Percentage of teens who sleep less than 8.5 hours on school nights

37%
Percentage of drivers who admit to having driven while drowsy at least once during the previous month

19
Hours of unbroken wakefulness at which one's impairment in reasoning ability equals that due to intoxication at a blood-alcohol level of .1%

1971
Year that DHMC's Sleep Center—one of the nation's first—opened

1,200
Number of accredited sleep centers in the U.S. today

SOURCES: JOURNAL OF SLEEP RESEARCH, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF SLEEP MEDICINE, NATIONAL SLEEP FOUNDATION, DHMC


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