Sleep, health, and society: The contribution of epidemiology

Sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation are common in modern society. Since the beginning of the century, populations have been subjected to a decline in the number of hours devoted to sleep, due to changes in a variety of environmental and social conditions. The potential detrimental effects to health of sustained sleep deprivation and disruption were first acknowledged by industry (e.g., airlines, long-distance driving). However, only recently has the wider implication for the population at large been unveiled. This book is designed to summarize the epidemiological evidence linking disturbances of sleep quantity and quality to several chronic conditions, to assess the epidemiological evidence for causality, and to explore the public health implications with a view to inform a discourse on possible preventive strategies.