

Americans are working more and sleeping less, an unfortunate predicament that leaves us irritable, unproductive, infection-prone and sexually dysfunctional.

That's the conclusion of a poll released on Monday by the National Sleep Foundation. It was dutifully described by dozens of news outlets – but only one of them reported that the foundation is funded by pharmaceutical companies who stand to profit from sleeping drugs.

Among the sponsors of the foundation's National Sleep Awareness Week – going on right now, and which I celebrated this morning by sleeping through my alarm – are pharmaceutical giants Boehringer-Ingelheim,

GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Organon International, Sepracor, Somaxon and

Takeda. (Mattress makers TempurPedic and Wamsutta chipped in, too.)

The Associated Press, US News & World Report, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, NBC, CTV, UPI, WebMD, Chattanooga Times Free Press, National Post: none mentioned the potential conflict of interest. Only Angela Stewart of the Newark Star-Ledger noted that foundation is "funded in part by pharmaceutical companies."

Should this piece of information change our interpretation of the poll's findings – that the average American gets less than seven hours sleep on weeknights, only a little more on weekends, and that our personal relationships and professional capacities suffer as a result?

Speaking strictly for myself, based on extensive anecdotal evidence, I think these numbers are probably accurate; if not, it's because of problems intrinsic to polling. The National Sleep Foundation's funders stand to gain from insomnia aids and deep-sleep drugs, but the underlying problem is real. (My own solution to this problem is less pharmaceutical and more political – but that's a rant for another day.)

That's my own take. Other people will have different interpretations, and rightfully so. What's important is that we judge the findings with all relevant information at hand. Funding sources are definitely relevant.

And in the interests of full disclosure: I once wrote a story for my journalism school's wire service about a commercial nap provider. I cited the National Sleep Foundation and didn't even think to see where its money came from.

Note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released their own

sleep poll last week. Their findings: one in ten Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. *

This would have been a less-conflicted hook on which to hang the

National Sleep Foundation story, or at least to corroborate it, but only a few reporters even mentioned it.

Sleep in America Poll: Summary of Findings [National Sleep Foundation]

CDC Study Reveals Adults May Not Get Enough Rest or Sleep [CDC]

Image: Mayr

See Also:

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter and Del.icio.us feeds; Wired Science on Facebook.