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People who sleep for six or fewer hours every night may be accumulating a "sleep debt" that affects their normal cognitive abilities, and they may be so sleep-deprived that they don’t notice their decreased abilities.
According to the study, chronically sleep-deprived individuals said they felt "only slightly sleepy" when performing at their worst during psychological testing.
For people who find that their sleep is routinely restricted, such as military personnel, on-call doctors and surgeons, shift workers and parents of young children, this could result in seriously impaired functional abilities.
Researchers compared the effects of different amounts of sleep over a two-week period on participants aged from 21 to 38 years with participants who had not slept for more than three nights.
People who slept for four hours a night had a decline of performance equal to the subjects who went without sleep for 88 hours.
Researchers noted that the participants’ decline in performance was significant enough to put them at risk while driving or flying an airplane, and would make them less able to multi-task effectively.
Sleep March 15, 2003
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