Tuesday, March 25, 2008

How important is sleep?


High Blood Pressure

Diminished cognitive processes

Acid Reflux Disease

Diabetes

Obesity

Increased dental disease

Weariness

Sleepiness

Fatal Car Crashes


are all conditions associated with "Sleep Disturbance Disorder". Sleep Apnea is just one of the problems.


"60 Minutes" did a very fine presentation on the importance of sleep and "sleep disturbance disorders".


http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml click on more videos to access the report.


1 comment:

Amanda said...

Wow. 6 days to pre-diabetes in normal healthy people? That's amazing. I'm going to go take a nap!

We just saw a really neat documentary on the Discovery channel called Human Body: Pushing the Limits. It had a segment on sleep and showed how your body forces your brain to rest and followed the process of a brain in shut down mode. It was really interesting. Their example was a man who broke a hot air balloon record. He pushed himself until his body forced him to sleep. When the low-elevation alarm went off he started climbing out of the basket to get away from the noise. Luckily he fully woke up in time before he jumped out but it illustrated how strongly his body wanted to remain asleep and get away from the noise that was waking him.

The show was well done and showed the effect on the brain with it's ability to think logically and reason but it didn't show the other effects that the 60 minute article showed. That's amazing.

La Boheme

Why I Love Opera!