May 21st, 2008 9:29 AM Eastern
Study: A Sleep-Deprived Brain is Potentially Dangerous
by Karlie Pouliot
If you want your brain to function properly - get a good night’s sleep.
According to a new study from an international coalition of researchers, all it takes is one night of tossing and turning to make the brain unstable.
Researchers said the sudden shutdowns in the brain that result from sleep deprivation could lead to potentially dangerous mistakes or accidents.
“The main finding is that the brain of the sleep-deprived individual is working normally sometimes, but intermittently suffers from something akin to power failure,” Harvard University’s Dr. Clifford Saper, an expert unaffiliated with the study, told the Journal of Neuroscience.
Tags: sleep; brain function; Dr. Clifford Saper
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Any mommy could have told you that and saved millions of dollars of research!!
The leaders of the US Navy Bands need to read this report. They routinely put their bands on the road for 18 hours a day and sometimes on 2 hours of sleep to drive in a foreign country and the US. They believe that if one person of the 8 in a van is sleeping that they will be fine to continue driving through the night but we all know that sleeping in a van isnt deep sleep and this is proof. So the next time you see a Navy Band tell them to get off the road before they kill somebody
I agree with the findings. I’m a rotating shift work that has ample amounts of over time. Some days I don’t know if I’m coming or going.
So, physicians should be working in shifts (7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm,and 11pm -7am) just like registered nurses do; otherwise they are putting patients at risk due to fatigue and sleep deprivation, right?
Tell me about it. I’ve been working graveyards for the last two years and have frequently driven home in a semi-hypnotic state.
I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and … hummmm .. what were we talking about?
I would comment, but I didn’t get much sleep last night.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas needs to see this report! My husband works there and is severely sleep deprived, as are his coworkers. They rotate shifts every 2 weeks: 2 weeks on day shift, 2 weeks on 3rd shift, 2 weeks on 2nd shift, then back to days again. If he gets hurt at work, I completely and totally 100% blame Toyota for forcing them to rotate shifts. SO stupid.
For two years I had been extremely tired with no energy, thought it was the drive that I make
to work everyday, (135 miles round trip). On the weekends, slept all the time and had REALLY bad
dark circles under my eyes. So for two years, felt like a walking zombie! Couldn’t take it anymore! My brain, by Wednesday..didn’t want to function. Finally, my husband went with me to the doctors…they ran test and found out that I have SLEEP APNEA. Ha, I had never heard of that. So now have to look like “Frankenstein” with the mask on at night, but keeps be breathing correctly when I sleep. I FEEL LIKE A NEW PERSON NOW.
My point is…I totally agree with the findings!
We changed our flower-shop from a money losing to a profitable enterprise simply by discontinuing the all-nighters the day before major holidays such as Valentine’s day.
Who sponsored this - The University of Duh?
I have been going to Nursing school when we were blessed with the news that we were having a baby. Before my daughter I was an A, B student. Now I am a B, C student. My college requires me to get 85% (B-) or better to pass the classes and I’m having a problem with that. My brain just doesn’t work the way it use to. It is a comfort to see in writing that I am ok and with some sleep I can be back to my old self. I’ve had to drop down to one class a semester and hopefully that will help. Thanks to Fox for shining light on this study!
Could’a told ‘em that. There was the time I drove my son to a Scouts meeting, and the road kept disappearing and reappearing. Had I been stopped, I wouldn’t have passed the sobriety tests. It was Thursday, and I’d had approximately 8 hours of sleep–since Sunday!
Never again!