Is poor sleep a public health crisis like smoking?
I've been reading about how sleep deprivation is linked to Alzheimer's disease, and it's making me rethink my all-nighters. A study from Johns Hopkins found that even one night of poor sleep increases amyloid beta plaques in the brain. Yet many doctors still prescribe sleep aids like Ambien that disrupt deep sleep stages, potentially worsening cognitive decline over time. Should we treat chronic insomnia as a public health crisis equivalent to smoking, given the evidence that poor sleep raises dementia risk by up to 33%?