COLORADO SPRINGS — Christina Carter gets four hours of sleep at night and eats just one meal a day, and the toll of this is clear in her drooping, exhausted eyes.
Sleep doesn’t come easily for the 25-year-old waitress and mother of two young children, who has watched her husband search in vain for employment and her tips at Denny’s shrink. And food? She goes without a couple of meals each day to ensure her children don’t have to.
“I wake up every morning wondering how this day is going to go,” she said, as she searched for a second job at the Pikes Peak Workforce Center.
Although mounting scientific evidence shows sleep and diet to be at the root of good health, both have become casualties in this recession, according to experts and surveys. Consequently, people who are already feeling bad because of fears and hardship are feeling even worse.
“People who are chronically sleep deprived, focus goes, emotional stability is affected,” said Dr. Gregory Ruff, medical director for The Penrose-St. Francis Sleep Disorders Center. “You may be more quick to lose your temper and can’t think through problems. Your response times are decreased. You operate in a fog a little bit.”
A third of Americans are losing sleep over the economy, according to a 2009 poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation.
Sleeplessness is one of the most common complaints for the jobless, said Dana Rodenbaugh, a social worker and the vice president of programs and educational services at the Pikes Peak Workforce Center. And the fatigue and mental dullness that result come at the worst possible time – when people need to be at their best for would-be employers.
Economic woes are driving bad diets, too. A recent poll of more than 1,000 Americans found one in four were more likely to eat high-calorie comfort foods because of the downturn, according to Forbes.
While hard times are driving some people to eat more, they are forcing others, like Carter, to eat less. And in many cases people turn to less nutritious foods that are cheaper or easier to prepare than some of the healthier ones.
Sharon Jacob, a registered dietitian at St. Francis Medical Center, said junk food triggers a pleasurable response in the brain. But similar to a drug, that joy is short-lived. Overall, such a diet leads to fatigue and low-energy.
Ruff advises people battling sleeplessness to write down what’s on their minds, which he said will help prevent them from dwelling on those worries while staring at the ceiling. He also urges people to follow set bedtimes and avoid alcohol, caffeine or exercise at least a few hours before lights out.
Jacob said people can avoid many of the pitfalls of poor food choices by planning meals ahead of time.
