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One in Ten Americans Are Chronically Sleep Deprived
WirePosted writes "A CDC research study released this past week indicates that the physical and mental health of many Americans is being adversely affected by a lack of sleep. According to the study, a part of the organization's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, one in ten US citizens are consistently failing to get enough sleep every night. Almost 40% of the people surveyed didn't get enough sleep for more than a week every month. The article notes that this trend can have far-ranging implications for health beyond simple fatigue."
Well, it's 2:30PM here in Iraq and I'm wide awake. While not sleep deprived myself, many of my coworkers here and at my last unit work 16-20 hour days for months on end. I think some of them think they're being hard (and some get paid for evey hour worked), but their lack of sleep is counter-productive. Many will fall asleep in the middle of a conversation with you. I also have to wonder about brain damage as another side effect. The people who have been doing it the most look like they've been lobotimized even right after they've woken up. It's the same sort of look in someone's face who's wasted their mind on alcohol; they look like they were bright once but have killed too many brain cells. The effects I've seen of long-term sleep deprivation here are enough to make me get 8 to 9 hours sleep every night.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Actually, I think there's a pretty good case to be made that killing people does lead to mental damage. PTSD is rarely caused by revulsion or shock by one's own acts. It's generally caused by events that scare the crap out of you. In other words, it's nearly being killed by others that damages you, not killing them instead. Humans are generally better adapted to inflicting horrors on others than having them inflicted on themselves.