Sleep Debt Needs to be 'Paid Off'

SLEEP that knits up the raveled sleave of care
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

William Shakespeare’s lines from Macbeth hold the common opinion that sleep is very important for recuperation, stress management, and a better condition of life. A multidisciplinary study involving eight researchers in the field of medicine, public health, medical technology, and psychology found that sleep deprivation reduces working memory capacity (WMC), and results to increased math, accuracy and speed errors. Previous studies found no serious impact on fine manual skills (e.g. surgery) an acute fatigue due to a 24 or 30 work-hour day without sleep in a four-day cycle.

Of the increased errors observed, those in math... (Read more.)

This article is published in Sun-Star Cebu newspaper on 8 September 2010.

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