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| for temporary energy. Most employees, even in crucial jobs, are forced to keep going all day no matter how fatigued they are. What if such sleep-deprived persons are dealing with the safety of an airplane? What if they are driving a semi-truck down a crowded highway? |
| Sleep loss accumulates, and many people carry a dangerously large sleep debt, often unknowingly. Soon, the chronic loss of sleep can cause lapses of attention, inability to respond, slow thinking, impaired memory, erratic behavior, and irritability. Mental functions decline and judgment fades, with results serious enough to be a danger to the person as well as to society, especially when critical decisions are being made, vehicles are being driven or dangerous machinery is being used. A person with a big sleep debt is slower to recover from stress and is much more vulnerable to infections and other illnesses. Clearly, the immune system functions considerably better after good sleep than after insomnia. A 1995 study shows that natural killer-cells (attacking foreign elements in our body) are least active in insomniacs, somewhat more active in depressed patients and most active in normally sleeping patients. This may be one of the reasons insomniacs feel that they catch colds and other infectious diseases more frequently than is normal. Poor sleep also heightens the effects of drinking alcohol. An insomniac's general functioning, as well as driving performance, deteriorates to a far greater degree than that of a well-rested person who has consumed the same amount of alcohol. |
| People with chronic insomnia have more than twice as many car accidents due to falling asleep |
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