Sleep: The New Health Frontier

Sleep deprivation can cause the following things:

• Lack of sleep caused some of the greatest disasters in recent memory. The Three Mile Island accident, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl to name a few.
• Drowsiness can also slow reaction times when you are driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claims that fatigue is a cause in about 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 related deaths a year.
• Injuries and poor performance on the job is a problem. Workers who are sleep deprived take more sick days than those who get enough sleep. They also have more on-the-job accidents.
• Sleep loss causes poor cognitive responses. Lack of sleep impairs alertness, attention, reasoning, concentration, and problem-solving. It also makes learning difficult. Not getting enough sleep will cause you to forget what you experienced and learned during the day.
• Sleep deprivation can cause health problems. Estimates claim 90 percent of people with insomnia have health conditions like heart disease, heart failure, irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, the risk of stroke, and diabetes.
• Sex drive will die a slow death with lack of sleep. Men and women report lower libidos and less interest in sex when they are sleep deprived. Sleepiness, depleted energy, and an increase in tension might also contribute to problems in the bedroom.