Why you need to go to bed

Fifty to 70 million Americans have some type of sleep disorder or chronic under-sleeping that impairs their day-to-day performance, reports ABC news.

In an article titled 'Be Thinner, Healthier, More Productive: Go to Bed', the article says that  'the typical person needs between eight and eight-and-a-half hours of sleep per night. But Americans now get an average of six-and-a-half hours on weekdays, and the amount of time spent in the sack is on the decline.'

This has a serious health implications not just for the sleep-deprived individual, but also for the workforce, ABC quotes Harvard Medical School Professor Charles Czeisler, who studies the effects of insufficient sleep on people's lives, as saying. 

It is a 'common misconception' that 'someone can make up for lost sleep in one night,' he said. Within a week, people who cut back on sleep by even a few hours each night will 'be just as impaired as if they had pulled an all-nighter.'

'In fact, companies, when they have employees who are sleep deprived, experience what you might call 'presenteeism' -- where they're at work, physically present, but they're not working at nearly their full potential,' ABC quotes Czeisler as saying.

In his studies, Czeisler found that people who work long, 30-hour shifts, like medical students, are seven times more likely to make serious mistakes.

This is because a sleep deprived brain 'begins to short circuit, particularly in the pre-frontal

cortex responsible for judgment and decision making,' ABC says.

'When the pressure for sleep reaches a critical point, a 'sleep switch' in the hypothalamus flips, sending a person into a state of sleep --even if they're chugging caffeine or driving a car. An estimated 80,000 Americans fall asleep at the wheel every day, resulting in about 8,000 deaths a year.'

Czeisler also links sleep deprivation with health issues like obesity.

Want to lose weight? Try some sleep!

'When we get an inadequate amount of sleep at night, there are changes in our body's metabolism that almost mimic starvation. So, we have carbohydrate cravings and we eat more,' the article quotes him as saying.

Experts also say it's not a good thing to fall asleep 'at the drop of a hat,' says ABC. 'That means the body is exhausted and is plunging itself into sleep the minute it has the chance. Normally, the body should take about 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep.'

Naps, however, 'can help jump-start the body,' it says, quoting a NASA study which indicated half-hour naps 'boosted performance by 34 percent and alertness by 54 percent.'

But,the article concludes, 'while power naps help, they won't make up for a big sleep deficit. When nighttime comes, nothing beats a full eight hours of rest.'