The widespread incidence of sleep deprivation in the American population has been a source of serious concern, not just for doctors and healthcare agencies, but also Los Angeles car accident lawyers. That’s because a sleep-deprived motorist is much more likely to be involved in a drowsy driving accident. If you are in the habit of sleeping little every night, and making up for it by sleeping in for over the weekend, your risks of being involved in a drowsy driving accident may not necessarily reduce.
According to new research, people who sacrifice sleep during workweeks only to sleep for additional number of hours during the weekend,may not benefit from the extra hours of sleep. The research finds that extra sleep over the weekends doesn’t necessarily improve a person’s concentration.
The research was conducted by a team at Penn State University. As part of the research, 30 adults who categorized themselves as normal sleepers were put through a predetermined sleep schedule. Under the schedule, subjects slept in a lab, and for the first four nights, they slept for eight hours. However, after the first four nights, the researchers woke up all of the subjects at least two hours early for six nights in a row. For the last three nights, these persons were put to bed for 10 hours.
The participants were given a series of tests, and were also asked to fill out questionnaires about how sleepy they were feeling. They were also given a test in which they were asked to press a button every time a dot appeared on the screen.
The researchers found that there was no significant improvement in the test results when the participants were getting just six hours of sleep per night, and when they slept for 10 hours straight.
