Lack of a good night's sleep is a nightmare

"A good night's sleep" is considered the ultimate cure for a host of ills and woes.

But for an estimated 400 million Chinese with sleep-related disorders, a good night's sleep is only a dream.

More and more people, particularly those living in cities, are experiencing problems sleeping at night; and experts in China hope today's World Day of Sleep will draw attention to the issue.

Zhang Yan, a 26-year-old English teacher at a university in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, took leave last month to return to her hometown, a rural village in East China's Anhui Province, for the sole purpose of rest.

"It's really a sleepy hollow there. I easily fall into sound sleep at night," Zhang said. "But on my return to Nanjing, I found myself in the fast lane of life again."

Zhang is not alone in her predicament.

A 2003 survey conducted in major Chinese cities by the China Medical Association showed that 38.2 per cent of urban dwellers suffer from sleep disorders such as insomnia, abruptly waking up, night sweats, rapid heartbeats during sleep and snoring.

But public awareness of the disorders, and of related medical services and intervention measures, is low, said Wang Guangliang, secretary general of the Chinese Sleep Research Society.

Wang said the most important thing for experts at the moment is to let people know of the help available.

For example, many regard snoring as a sign of sound sleep. It may, however, be a symptom of a potentially serious breathing condition sleep apnea that can lead to heart disease and strokes.

This year, his society will hold at least 1,000 lectures and forums in communities to teach residents how to improve their quality of sleep.

Sleep disorders may be caused by mental pressure or physical illness, and must be treated under the guidance of doctors, Wang said.

However, the majority of Chinese hospitals have no special departments to treat sleep problems.

Doctors who can treat disorders often work in separate departments, and there are no general practitioners to help people, Wang added.