Wichita Public Library

Sweet Dreams: How and Why Sleep Matters

Wichita State University Professor Emeritus Dr. Barbara Smith will give a talk about sleep health, including how it works, its health impacts, and tips on building healthy sleep habits.

Good sleep is essential to good health, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 3 adults in the United States reported not getting enough rest or sleep every day. Sleep deficiency can lead to physical and mental health problems, injuries, loss of productivity, and even a greater likelihood of death. To understand sleep deficiency, it helps to understand what makes you sleep and how it affects your health. In this program, Dr. Barbara Smith, Professor Emeritus from Wichita State University's Department of Physical Therapy, will talk about what actually happens in our bodies when we sleep, how sleep changes throughout a person’s life, how sleep impacts various health outcomes like cardiovascular health, mental disorders, cognitive functioning, and our immune system, and she will also share tips for maintaining healthy sleep habits.