120 Sleep Deficits and Harm

Are you surprised that a single treatment improves memory, increases people’s ability to concentrate, strengthens the immune system and decreases people’s risk of being killed in accidents is free, with no side effects?

Few Americans regularly obtain eight or more hours of sleep each night. This chronic sleep deprivation can be disastrous. Laboratory experiments show that sleep deficits dramatically impair memory and concentration while increasing levels of stress hormones and disrupting the body’s normal metabolism. Plus long-term sleep deprivation puts people at greater risk of motor vehicle accidents and disease.

Psychologist David Dinges and colleagues recruited healthy young volunteers to sleep in a laboratory for 10-20 days. They randomly assigned the volunteers to receive different amounts and patterns of sleep over time, controlled access to stimulants, and constantly monitored the amount of sleep volunteers were actually getting. Dinges learned that people who get fewer than eight hours of sleep per night show pronounced cognitive and physiological deficits, including memory impairments, a reduced ability to make decisions and dramatic lapses in attention.  Naps did improve cognitive functioning, BUT did not repair the negative mood that results from sleep loss.

Think. What would you have to do to get your full 8 hours sleep?

References

Colten, Harvey R. and Altevogt, Bruce M. (eds.) (2013). Sleep disorders and sleep deprivation: an unmet public health problem. Institute of Medicine. National Academies Press.

Coren, S. (1996). Sleep thieves: An eye-opening exploration into the science and mysteries of sleep. New York: Free Press.

Dement, W. C. (1999). The promise of sleep. New York: Delacorte Press.

Dinges, D. F., Pack, F., Williams, K., Gillen, K. A., Powell, J. W., Ott, G. E., Aptowicz, C., & Pack, A. I. (1997). Cumulative sleepiness, mood disturbance and psychomotor vigilance performance decrements during a week of sleep restricted to 4-5 hours per night. Sleep: Journal of Sleep Research & Sleep Medicine, 20, 267-277.

Dinges, D. F., Whitehouse, W. G., Orne, E. C., & Orne, M. T. (1988). The benefits of a nap during prolonged work and wakefulness. Work & Stress, 2, 139-153.

Kessler, R.C., Berglund, P.A., Coulouvrat, C., Hajak, G., Roth, T., Shahly, V., Shillington, A.C., Stephenson, J.J., and Walsh, J.K. (2011). Insomnia and the performance of U.S. workers: Results from the America Insomnia Survey. Sleep, 34(9), 1161-1171.

Monk, T. H. (1991). Sleep, sleepiness and performance. Oxford, England: John Wiley & Sons.

Moorcroft, W. H. (2003). Understanding sleep and dreaming. New York: Kluwer/Plenum.

Spinweber, C. L., Johnson, L. C., & Chin, L. A. (1985). Disqualified and qualified poor sleepers: Subjective and objective variables. Health Psychology, 4, 569-578.

Unhealthy sleep-related behaviors — 12 states, 2009 (March 4, 2011). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 60(8), 234-242. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For more details see:

http://www.apa.org/research/action/sleep-deprivation.aspx

American Psychological Association, February 2014