If you feel drowsy during the day, even during boring activities, you haven’t had enough sleep.

If you routinely fall asleep within five minutes of lying down you probably have severe sleep deprivation.

 Sleep is necessary for survival. It affects our daily functioning and our physical and mental health. Sleep deprivation is dangerous.

 Reducing you nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32%.

Sleep deprivation results in memory and cognitive impairment..

Sleep deprived people who are tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand eye coordination task perform as badly or worse than those who are intoxicated. Sleep deprivation also magnifies alcohol’s effect on the body, so a fatigued person who drinks will become much more impaired than someone who is well rested.

 Driver fatigue is responsible for an estimated 100,000 motor vehicle accidents and 1500 deaths each year. The National Sleep Foundation says that if you have trouble keeping your eyes focused, if you can’t stop yawning, or if you can’t remember driving the last few miles, you are probably too drowsy to drive safely.

 For most adults, 8-9 hours of sleep appears to be the right amount. The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days.     Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don’t seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need; while we may be used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired.

 Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep

· Set a schedule – go to bed and get up at the same time each day.

· Exercise 20-30 minutes a day, try to do 5-6 hours before going to bed

· Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol –caffeine acts as a stimulant, smokers wake up early in the morning due to nicotine withdrawal and alcohol robs people of deep sleep

· Control your room temperature – extreme temperatures may disrupt sleep or prevent you from falling asleep

· See your doctor if you have trouble falling asleep night after night, or if you always feel tired the next day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 9:51 am and is filed under Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.