Facts and Statistics

• In dolphins, only one-half of the brain sleeps at a time, with the other half staying awake. This is essential in order to reach the water surface to breathe.

• Up to 15% of people “sleep walk.” Sleepwalking is called somnambulism.

• Approximately 15% of people have restless leg syndrome.

• Vehicular crashes are the third leading cause of death and injury in the United States, and up to 20% of them are sleep related.

• Untreated sleep apnea causes 500,000 motor vehicle crashes annually.

• One in 20 men have sleep apnea.

• Seizures occur more commonly during sleep than during waking hours.

• Many tranquilizers actually decrease deeper stages of sleep that are required for the restoration and fresh feeling in the morning.

• Jet Lag is worse when traveling toward the East.

• Sleep loss of four hours is equivalent to being drunk with a blood alcohol level of 0.1%.

• One-third of young adults are pathologically sleepy during the day.

Importance of Sleep

Sleep is important for our overall well being and sleep helps us feel healthier, think sharper & enjoy life more fully. Many people underestimate the value of sleep. Like proper nutrition & exercise, sleep is vital to your health.  Lots of disease conditions and emotional problems stem from lack of sleep and not from external factors, as we would like to believe.

The mind and body do not shut down during sleep. Sleep allows the brain to consolidate the day’s learning into memory and improves the ability to learn repetitive skills, such as riding a bike or working on a computer. During sleep, the body does maintenance work like replacing old cells with new ones and reenergizing organs and muscles.

The "work" that sleep does during the night is vital for you to function optimally during the day. Getting the amount of sleep you need and getting a combination of light and deep sleep allow the most restorative benefit.

Sleep Debt

Sleep loss that accumulates night after night is called sleep debt or sleep deprivation.  Slight loss of sleep also could cause sleep debt if continued on a regular basis.  It is therefore important for the body to get the stipulated amount of sleep.

Impact of sleep debt or sleep deprivation

• Sleep debt has a deep and lasting impact on daytime life.  Accidents that occur while driving or decreased levels of concentration at work etc., are all a result of sleep deprivation, cataclysmic accidents, such as the Exxon Valdez or Chernobyl nuclear disasters, can be traced in some part to lack of sleep.

• Fragmented sleep can be as devastating as no sleep. -- Dr. William C. Dement, Stanford University, Sleep Research Center.

• Two-thirds of American adults report a sleep-related problem.--National Sleep Foundation

• Some people show great bravado about getting a job done on little sleep or brag having trouble sleeping, claiming their work proves they didn’t need the rest anyway. Yet the truth is that fatigue is dangerous. America’s sleep problems have reached epidemic proportions, and may be the country’s number one health problem.--CNN Health Story Page.

• By the year 2010, nearly 40 million Americans will experience debilitating excessive daytime sleepiness, and an estimated 79 million Americans will have difficulty falling asleep.--Census Bureau Statistics

• On any given day a substantial number of Americans, perhaps the majority, are functionally handicapped by sleep deprivation.-- National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research 

• Researchers suspect one reason heart attacks occur more frequently in the morning is that a night of tossing and turning can lead to a significant surge of blood pressure the next morning.-- Time Magazine

• In today’s fast-paced world we are sleep deprived. We’ve cut back on the hours we sleep to provide more time for work, family and leisure. 

Excerpts taken from this article are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. They use material from Wikipedia topics "Lucid Dream" and/or "Sleep".