National Institutes of Health: Sustained Reduced Sleep Can Have Serious Consequences
In a study on the effects of sleep deprivation, investigators at the University of Pennsylvania found that subjects who slept four to six hours a night for fourteen consecutive nights showed significant deficits in cognitive performance equivalent to going without sleep for up to three days in a row. Yet these subjects reported feeling only slightly sleepy and were unaware of how impaired they were. The research article, “The Cumulative Cost of Additional Wakefulness: Dose-Response Effects on Neurobehavioral Functions and Sleep Physiology From Chronic Sleep Restriction and Total Sleep Deprivation,” appears in the March issue of the journal SLEEP.
When you consider that Walter Reed Army Institute of Research says that 24 hours without sleep costs you 25% of your cognitive function, this is pretty impressive.
Also see Brain Activity is Visibly Altered. Brains attempt to reconfigure to handle tasks when sleep deprived.
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