Actualis



August 2011
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"You are getting very sleepy..."

No need for a hypnotist to put us under when we're not getting enough sleep - which happens to be the case for many workers. In fact, people are starting to talk, particularly the... economists.

Did you have a good vacation? Did you take the opportunity to repay your sleep debt? Unfortunately, that might not be enough, especially if you, like the majority of your fellow citizens, suffer from a chronic sleep shortage. And if you've done a bit of driving this summer, well... be sure to read right to the end of this article.

A widespread trend

We're hearing more and more about the consequences of sleep deprivation on workplace health, safety, and productivity. In the United States, they have even set up a National Sleep Foundation and a Congressional commission to look at the phenomenon. The average American sleeps about 7.5 hours a night, while the average doctor would prescribe 8 hours and 15 minutes. In fact, 40% of workers get less than seven hours of sleep a night during the week. What's the result of this nightly deficit of something over an hour? Let's do the math:  48 weeks of work per year X 5 days a week X 1.25 hours = 300 hours. The equivalent of about... 36 normal nights.

You can't catch up on that during your vacation!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz...

Sleep deprivation studies have been increasing in number over the past twenty years or so. Researchers have already demonstrated that a lack of sleep causes a change in the body's ability to metabolize sugar that is similar to diabetes, for example, and also that it promotes obesity. Another study indicates that subjects who were limited to six hours of sleep per night for two weeks ended up with the same level of work performance as if they had been awake for 24 hours straight. And the economic impact would be substantial:  over $100 billion per year in the United States alone. Which is enough to keep any economist awake at night.

But that's not all. Some examples send chills down your spine. Last April, an airplane had to circle the airport at Reno, Nevada, for 15 minutes before landing because the air traffic controller had fallen asleep on the job. It was the fifth such occurrence, and led the National Sleep Foundation to issue a press release calling for the authorities to take corrective action.

In an example that's closer to our daily lives, a French automotive journalist performed an ingenious test last year. He plugged himself into a device that measured his degree of wakefulness and then drove from Paris to Nice. After just three hours on the road, the device had registered two periods of drowsiness - one of which lasted two minutes - that the driver hadn't even noticed. By the end of his trip, he had driven the equivalent of 24 kilometres in a state that was closer to being asleep than awake!

Reclaiming the night

While it doesn't necessarily demonstrate that our driver suffered from a sleep deficit, this little test shows how easy it is to be unaware of the moments when our bodies crave sleep - without necessarily getting it.

But it might be in our interest to become aware of it, for our own sake as well as that of society as a whole. And on that note, good night!



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