Consequences of Sleep Depravation

This is a part of the article about sleep from Talk About Sleep web site. Make sure you read the whole article at http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/sleep-disorders/archives/intro.htm

With today's increasingly on-the-go, around-the-clock society, more people than ever are sleep deprived. People need a wake-up call, literally, to become aware of how prevalent sleep deprivation is.

In fact, it is estimated that nearly 50% of the adult population in the United States is sleep deprived. This may be attributed to longer work hours and increased commute times. It appears the price of the boost in productivity is a reduction in sleep.

So, what is happening to all of these exhausted individuals? Many tragedies that have been linked to human error were due to exhaustion. Some historic examples of severe sleep deprivation include the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the NASA Challenger shuttle explosion, and the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Unfortunately, accidents can easily happen as the result of any amount of lost sleep.

The most common consequence of lost sleep has become a public health issue - sleeping behind the wheel. One third of all drivers will fall asleep while driving at least once in their lifetime. The monetary cost is estimated at more than $30 billion annually and the human cost is roughly 100,000 crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,500 fatalities each year. These figures are probably very conservative due to inaccurate statistics. Moreover, this estimate does not account for other operators "behind a wheel", such as airline pilots, boat captains, and railway conductors.