`Good quality sleep crucial to mental health and wellbeing'

KUALA LUMPUR: Having a good quality and restorative sleep is essential for one to be able to function well throughout the day. Failure to do so will lead to numerous impacts to health, both long- and short-term.
According to the Sleep Disorder Society Malaysia (SDSM) president Dr Muhammad Muhsin Ahmad Zahari, some of the short-term negative impacts include short attention span, memory recall and learning; while its long-term effects have long been associated with hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, weakened immune system, and cancer.
Dr Muhammad Muhsin added that sleep disorder can also increase the risk of accidents.
"People who suffer from insomnia are seven times more likely to become involved in an accident which then resulted in death or serious injury," he said at the launch of the `World Sleep Day Celebration and Sleep 2014 Conference' at Cititel Hotel, here, today.
He revealed that sleep disorder actually constitute a global epidemic that threatens health and quality of life for up to 45% of the world's population, thus it is essential for everyone to have a better understanding of sleep conditions.
"Sleep is a basic human need and it is crucial not only to our health and well-being, it also plays an important role in the metabolic regulation in children," said Dr Muhammad adding that SDSM is working closely with the relevant authorities, associations and organisations in improving the quality of service of sleep medicine.
"With regards to the quality service in sleep medicine, facilities such as sleep laboratory are vital. As our population grows, there is definitely a need to increase the number of sleep laboratory in public hospitals to cater to the need of the people." he added.