Sleepless in Suburbia

Newsweek.com, September 16, 1999

If your commute is over an hour and fifteen minutes, a new study has a message for you: Move. Or your employer should. Dr. Joyce A. Walsleben, Director of the NYU Sleep Disorders Center, conducted a study, published Wednesday in the journal Sleep, that analyzed nearly 5,000 commuters on New York's Long Island Rail Road. People with long commutes slept about 40 minutes less per night than people with short commutes. And even though they slept more on weekend nights, they still always got about two hours less sleep per week than their short-commuting counterparts. Those lost hours of sleep each week affected their general health, making them more prone to conditions such as high blood pressure.

Although Dr. Walsleben did not study those who drive to work, the research that she did on train commuters made her concerned for road safety. "Are [drivers] sleeping behind the wheel, because they have the same long commute? And what happens to [train riders] when they get off the train — are they sleepy drivers?"

Dr. Walsleben thinks that trains could help commuters get more rest. Already, many people fall asleep on the train, using walkmans and sunglasses to mask noise and bright lights — why not make that easier? "If [trains] could make bar cars, they could make sleeper cars where people are not into talking, cell-phoning and carousing," she told Newsweek.com. She also feels that businesses can help their employees get more zzz's by relocating: "Industry will have to move to the commuter. It's this type of data that shows you get a much more healthy worker if you move out to Long Island so more people could have a shorter commute." Until that day, Dr. Walsleben took her own advice and got an apartment in Manhattan to cut out her commuting time. "I'm a much better sleeper and worker," she said.

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