The Importance of Good Sleep

We all know we feel gross when we haven't gotten enough sleep, but have you seen the research that's been done on sleep deprivation and the things it causes? A prime and fairly obvious example is that while you're sleepy, it slows down your reaction times which can lead to more accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates about 100,000 car crashes every year due to lack of sleep. On top of that, job injuries can accumulate, leading up to disasters that can be catastrophic (remember Valdez? Chernobyl? Research suggests that sleep deprivation was a big part of those incidents). On top of that, it's been shown that not only does your reaction time slow down, but you actually have a harder time thinking and learning. You can't remember things as well, you aren't as alert or attentive, you can't concentrate or reason properly. During certain phases of sleep in the night, it appears that the brain is actually packing away and consolidating the information you learned since you last slept, so when you short-sell this process you're actually risking never fully retaining anything you ever learn.