Sleep deprivation is a common issue nowadays and can lead negative impact on our performances. According to American Academy of Sleep Deprivation, sleep deprivation occurred when an individual failed to get adequate amount of sleep. How much is considered adequate? This number will depends on the individual, everyone has a different sleep length requirement to boost cognitive performances but most adults require an average of seven to eight hours of sleep while an adolescence will need as much as nine hours to feel alert and fresh.
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A study by Dawson D. in 1997 has demonstrated that, 17 hours of sustained wakefulness can lead to impaired performance equivalent to blood alcohol-level of 0.05% which is the legal limit for drink driving in most of the countries.
The director of the WSU Sleep and Performance Research Center said "Some people are protected from the effects of sleep deprivation by this particular gene variation but, for most of us, sleep loss does something to the brain that simply prevents us from switching gears when circumstances change,".
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In United State, about one out of five people is sleep deprived. This can be attributed to 4 different causes:
- Voluntary Behavior
This has been classified as a sleep disorder called behaviorally induced insufficient sleep syndrome. It involves a frequent trend of wakefulness for almost daily for at least three months.
- Work Hours
This causes can be seen with any occupation which are required the workers to work at night i.e doctors, firemen, policemen etc. Some of the work even required for the employee to stay awake for more than 24 hours which disrupt the sleep cycle that normally an individual have.
- Personal Obligation
Sleep deprivation can be seen in most of the individual who had certain obligation either toward sick family member or an infant crying at night.
- Medical Problems
Sleep disorder can be one of the symptoms for ongoing chronic sleep deprivation or any other medical condition which can lead to sleep deprivation.
Source: http://www.ridofdepression.com
We will be discussing on the effect of sleep deprivation on brain function for my next article. Follow and upvote to support me.