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Posts Tagged ‘sleep deprivation definition’

Sleep deprivation is the condition of lack of sleep. It can be chronic or acute and has a negative effect on brain and body in general. The studies have shown that total sleep deprivation leads to death in lab animals, and humans need at least miscosleeps to survive. Sleep deprivation can be imposed upon people, be a result of individual choice or different life circumstances. It’s also widely used for the treatment of psychiatric diseases and sleep disorders. Chronic deprivation of sleep is rather common in everyday life and 99% of the world population experience it in this or that way. Sleep deprivation is also used as a torture to make the criminals confess and as a psychiatric technique – to cure unconscious fears or multiple personality disorder.

The scientifically registered record of life without sleep belongs to Randy Gardner. In 1964 he intentionally stayed awake for 264 hours (the previous record was 260 hours and belonged to Tom Rounds of Honolulu). The researchers conducted by Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross during the experiment showed that long sleep deprivation causes serous cognitive and behavioral changes. The most evident and dangerous ones are: deficit in attention and deterioration of short-term memory.

Several successful attempts to break the record were made, but Randy Gardner’s one remains the most precious one, as it’s extensively documented by different researchers. By the way, the opinions of the 2 researchers who were involved into the experiments differ a lot: while Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross pointed out the obvious danger of acute sleep deprivation to health, his colleague William Dement claimed that Gardner’s record and his state of health after it had proved that deprivation of sleep carries no danger to humans’ health.