Having trouble staying awake after that first cup of coffee in the morning? A professor at the University of Minnesota Psychology Department says you might not be getting enough sleep.
Professor Diana Gant, who has been in the department for 17 years, says people should be getting nine to 10 hours of sleep, including an afternoon nap. "People on average gets about seven hours of sleep of night."
Not everyone agrees with her but wants people to think of sleep like exercise. "People exercise it's healthy. Sleep is healthy." Despite the reasons why people are not getting enough sleep, she said some of the consequences for the lack of sleep will materialize.
"Going without enough sleep is as much of a public and personal safety hazard as going to work drunk," she said. "It can make people clumsy, stupid, and unhappy."
Disasters like the shuttle Challenger, the accident at Russia's Chernobyl nuclear reactor and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, in Gant's words, were caused by a lack of sleep.
Another example Gant gives is an eight percent increase in accidents the day after the time change, and there's a corresponding decrease in accidents in the fall when people gain an extra hour of sleep.
Almost everyone in the field agrees on how to solve the problem of sleep shortage, Gant added. It can be as easy as finding a place that's dark and quiet, relax an hour before going to bed, the room temperature should be cool.
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