DIY checkup: sleep and health

For most Americans, getting eight hours of sleep a night tends to fall into the same category as flossing and wearing sunscreen: We know it’s a good idea, and we feel vaguely guilty when called on it … but we still don’t tend to do it. (A recent study found nearly one in five adults feels moderately to excessively sleepy during daylight hours, which is one sign we’re not getting enough sleep at night.)

Our sleep and our health are closely related. Do you get enough sleep, most nights? How do you cope when you don’t? How important do you find a good night’s sleep?

For this week’s DIY Health segment, Newsweek’s Kate Dailey and Dr. David Dinges, editor of the journal, Sleep, and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, help us figure out what we lose when we lose sleep.