Sleep Deficits: Avoid Them!

By Shlomo Maital

 

The December issue of the Association for Psychological Science’s Observer magazine has an article on “the hidden costs of sleep deficits”, written by the staff.   Apparently, nearly 30% of adult Americans sleep 6 or fewer hours a night – an hour at least short of the amount recommended. Just an hour? And what about children? School-age children should sleep 10 hours a night, but there are crack-of-dawn school starts (once common in Israel, now eliminated), homework and video games….

   According to research, what does sleep deficit do to us? * heightened conflict with family, friends and colleagues… * economic costs: workplace productivity declines, and mortality increases… and costly mistakes.. * emotions: sleep-deprived people have more difficulty controlling their emotions.

     One study showed that bosses who are sleep deprived are more abusive, leading to bad outcomes for everyone.

     So – get that extra hour of sleep. Check it out and see if it helps. Chances are, it will.