Microsleeps Secondary to Sleep Deprivation is Dangerous

Sleep is necessary to keep the brain to function properly. Sleep is essential as much as you need to breathe and eat.

- Dr Arun Oommen

Sleep deprivation is dangerous to our mental and physical health and can dramatically lower our quality of life. The quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your awake life, including your mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality, and even your weight. No other activity delivers so many benefits with so little effort! While you're sleeping, your body is busy tending to your physical and mental health and getting you ready for another day. Even minimal sleep loss takes a toll on your mood, energy, and ability to handle stress. A side effect of sleep deprivation is microsleep where we sleep for only a few seconds or a few minutes, but we don't realize it. Microsleep can get out of our control and can be extremely dangerous or fatal if we are driving or while doing some high-risk jobs.

Microsleep refers to episodes of sleep lasting less than 30 seconds. Often, we aren't aware of them. We may have multiple episodes of microsleep close together, as you try and fail to stay awake. A period of sleep needs to last at least a minute before the brain can register it.

Public safety is threatened when certain workers experience microsleep. Microsleep is commonly seen among long-distance drivers, Pilot, Air traffic controllers, Truck driver, Process workers in a plant or refinery or in the medical field.