Studies have shown that sleep loss impacts attention, so much that is has caused accidents.

Attention

A study was conducted to test relationship between attention and sleep. There were five groups, one with a standard sleep schedule, as well as 0, 4, 6 and 8 hours of sleep. Attention was measure via the amount of lapses to pressing a button was counted.

Over time, performance impairment increases with less sleep each day. Even partial sleep deprivation can be as devastating as total sleep deprivation with time. Even after with recovery sleep, it was shown that none of the sleep deprived groups reached the same level of performance as the baseline group.

<aside> 💉 Sleep loss impairs attention span, potentially causing accidents. It also never recovers.

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In the field

There are many occupations that work overnight, such as transport workers, shift workers, medical staff, military, and emergency services. In looking at medical interns working a 30 hour shift:

• 460% more diagnostic errors
• 170% increase risk of a major surgical error
• 1 out of 5 medical residents will cause serious harm to a patient due to a fatigue related error
• 1 out of 20 medical residents will kill a patient due to a fatigue related error
• If there are 25,655 residents in training, that means there are more than 1,000 deaths/yr
• 168% more likely to get into road accident on way home because tired

<aside> 🏥 Sleep loss impacts performance in the real world - and often in places where life matters.

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