Trivia: Sleep Deprivation |
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Whether working extra shifts or having too much fun,
we should all be careful to make sure that we get enough
sleep because:
• Twenty-four hours of
wakefulness produces a level of impairment equivalent
to having a blood alcohol level of 0.1% ( Fatigue,
alcohol and performance impairment, in Nature,
July 17, 1997). A blood alcohol concentration of
.08% or above is the usual figure that makes it illegal
to operate a motor vehicle (see MADD.org
and MADD.ca). • A person who experiences
a chronic loss of sleep, which means a person who
has two to three hours of sleep per night less than
the ideal for an individual, experiences sleep debt,
which manifests itself in forms that may include
fatigue, confusion, tension, and total mood disturbance.
A study of healthy young adults who were sleep deprived
for seven nights showed that they needed two full
nights of sleep to recover from the deficits. ( Cumulative
Sleepiness, Mood Disturbance, And Psychomotor Vigilance
Performance Decrements During A Week Of Sleep Restricted
To 4-5 Hours Per Night, in Sleep,
1997) • According to an article
on SleepFoundation.org,
nine out of every 10 North American police officers
have stopped a driver who they believed was drunk,
but turned out to be drowsy. And in the United States
alone, up to 100,000 police-reported crashes annually
involve drowsiness or fatigue as a principal causal
factor. And according to a 2005 report
by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, one in
five Canadian drivers admitted to having nodded off
or fallen asleep while driving at least once in the
past 12 months.
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Article published on Sep 21
05 12:59AM. |
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