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INITIATIVES / SLEEP EDUCATION
  • Sleep & Your Health
  • Sleep & Adolescents
  • Drowsy Driving
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60 years of scientific research prevent me from accepting anyone who tells me they can "get by on just four or five hours of sleep a night just fine."
                             
                 -  Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep
Emerging from this research renaissance is an unequivocal message:
​Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day - Mother Nature’s best effort yet at contra-death.
The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.
Sleep and Education
More than 80% of public high schools in the US begin before 8:15am. Almost 50% of those start before 7:20am. School buses for a 7:20am start time usually begin picking up kids at around 5:45am. As a result, some children and teenagers must wake up at 5:30am, 5:15am, or even earlier, and do so five days out of every seven, for years on end. This is lunacy.
When sleep is abundant, minds flourish. When it is deficient they don’t.
The switch to daylight savings time in March results in most people losing an hour of sleep opportunity. Should you tabulate millions of daily hospital records, as researchers have done, you discover that this seemingly trivial sleep reduction comes with a frightening spike in heart attacks the following day. Impressively, it works both ways.
Sleep is the third pillar of good health, alongside diet and exercise. Sleep is more than a pillar; it is a foundation on which the other two health bastions sit.
Humans need more than 7 hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After 10 days of 7 hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for 24 hours.
​Sleep deprivation is linked to Alzheimer’s Disease, anxiety, depression, Bipolar Disorder, suicide, stroke, chronic pain and contributes to cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, infertility, weight gain, obesity and immune deficiency.
​The recycle rate of a human is around 16 hours.
​After 16 hours awake, the brain begins to fail.
The human mind cannot accurately sense how sleep deprived it is when sleep deprived.

SLEEP & HEALTH NEWS

While We Sleep, Our Mind Goes on an Amazing Journey
Our floodlit society has made sleep deprivation a lifestyle.
But we know more than ever about how we rest—and how it keeps us healthy.
MICHAEL FINKEL - NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Sleep Deprivation May Cause Brain To Eat Itself: Study
Research finds that sleep deprivation is even more dangerous than originally thought.
​LUAN CHAN - TECH TIMES
Why eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
Why 8.5 hours of sleep is the new eight hours.
GEORGIA FRANCES KING - QUARTZ
The Biggest X-Factor in the 2018 NBA Finals Just Might Be a Good Night's Sleep
​Numerous studies have shown that NBA necessities--quick reaction times, sharp attention spans and lightning-quick memory recall--can be corrupted by lack of sleep.
TOM HABERSTROH - BLEACHER REPORT
Chronic sleep curtailment, even without extended wakefulness, degrades human vigilance performance
​Millions of individuals obtain insufficient sleep on a daily basis, which leads to impaired performance.
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA)
What's another hour of lost sleep? For some, a hazard
As daylight saving time looms, researcher sheds light on health effects of not getting enough rest.
THE HARVARD GAZETTE
The myth of the eight-hour sleep
We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
BBC NEWS
Tired teens could get to sleep in after legislators pass bill requiring later school start times
A two-year battle to set middle and high school start times at 8:30am or later was finally put to bed.
K-12 Sleep Research and School Start Times
Hanover Research’s new infographic explores the latest research and details the sleep, academic and behavioral effects of adjusting school start times.
Professor presents benefits of later school start times to Belmont School Committee
Professor Judith Owens, an internationally-recognized authority on sleep health and education, gave a presentation on the impact of school start times on student health and performance.
How to Help Your Teen Get More Sleep
When it comes to teens getting enough sleep, numerous forces are working against them. As parents, you wonder if there's anything you can do to help.
Poor grades tied to class times that don't match our biological clocks
Schedules of night owls, morning larks and daytime finches may predict their educational outcomes.
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VIDEOS

RESOURCES

DROWSY DRIVING AWARENESS
INTRODUCTION  •  MORE INFORMATION
New York State Department of Health

DROWSY DRIVING & FATIGUE
New York State Governor's Traffic Safety Committee

SLEEPINESS & DRIVING DON'T MIX
AAA

HOW TO AVOID DROWSY DRIVING
AAA

DROWSY DRIVING PREVENTION RESOURCE CENTER
National Sleep Foundation

DROWSY DRIVING NEWS

NY Lawmaker: Time Change a Reminder About Drowsy Driving
A New York state lawmaker is warning motorists about the dangers of drowsy driving.
US NEWS
In the United States, 1.2 million accidents are caused by sleepiness each year. This week alone, more than 2 million people will fall asleep while driving (more than 250,000 a day).
​A two second micro sleep at 30 mph with a modest angle of drift can result in your vehicle moving from one lane to the next.
microsleep
[mahy-kroh-sleep]
noun
1.   a momentary lapse in concentration
2.   a moment of sleep followed by disorientation, experienced by persons suffering from sleep deprivation
​Concentration buckles
under the smallest dose
of sleep deprivation.
​Driving on less than
five hours of sleep, increases your risk of a crash threefold.
Every hour someone dies in a traffic accident in the US due to
​fatigue-related error.​
Crashes caused by drowsiness tend to be more deadly than those caused by alcohol or drugs. Drunk drivers are often late in braking, but when you fall asleep while driving you stop reacting altogether.
Accidents are unexpected events that happen by chance or without apparent cause. 
accident
[ak-sa-dent]
noun
1.   an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance
2.   an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance

Crashes that result from drowsy driving are unnecessary
and preventable.

Matthew Walker describes the perfect conditions for falling asleep.
12 TIPS FOR HEALTHY SLEEP
Stick to a sleep schedule.
Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. As creatures of habit, people have a hard time adjusting to changes in sleep patterns. Sleeping later on weekends won’t fully make up for a lack of sleep during the week and will make it harder to wake up early on Monday morning. Set an alarm for bedtime. Often we set an alarm for when it’s time to wake up for fail to do so for when it’s time to go to sleep. If there is only one piece of advise you remember and take from these twelve tips, this should be it.
Exercise is great, but not too late in the day.
Try to exercise at least thirty minutes on most days but not later than two to three hours before your bedtime.
Avoid caffeine and nicotine.
Coffee, colas, certain teas, and chocolate contain the stimulant caffeine, and its effects can take as long as eight hours to wear off fully. Therefore, a cup of coffee in the late afternoon can make it hard for you to fall asleep at night. Nicotine is also a stimulant, often causing smokers to sleep only very lightly. In addition, smokers often wake up too early in the morning because of nicotine withdrawal.
Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.
Having a nightcap or alcoholic beverage before sleep may help you relax, but heavy use robs you of REM sleep, keeping you in the lighter stages of sleep. Heavy alcohol ingestion also may contribute to impairment in breathing at night. You also tend to wake up in the middle of the night when the effects of the alcohol have worn off.
Avoid large meals and beverage late at night.
A light snack is okay, but a large meal can cause indigestion, which interferes with sleep. Drinking too many fluids at night can cause frequent awakenings to urinate.
If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt sleep.
Some commonly prescribed heart, blood pressure, or asthma medications, as well as some over-the-counter and herbal remedies for coughs, colds, or allergies, can disrupt sleep patterns. If you have trouble sleeping, talk to your health care provider or pharmacist to see whether any drugs you’re taking might be contributing to your insomnia and ask whether they can be taken at other times during the day or early in the evening.
Don't take naps after 3 p.m.
Naps can help make up for lost sleep, but late afternoon naps can make it harder to fall asleep at night.
Relax before bed.
Don’t over schedule your day so that no time is left for unwinding. A relaxing activity, such as reading or listening to music, should be part of your bedtime ritual.
Take a hot bath before bed.
The drop in body temperature after getting out of the bath may help you feel sleepy, and the bath can help you relax and slow sown so you’re more ready to sleep.
Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom.
Get rid of anything in your bedroom that might distract you from sleep, such as noises, bright lights, an uncomfortable bed, or warm temperatures. You sleep better if the temperature in the room is kept on the cool side. A TV, cell phone, or computer in the bedroom can be a distraction and deprive you of needed sleep. Having a comfortable mattress and pillow can help promote a good night’s sleep. Individuals who have insomnia often watch the clock. Turn the clock’s face out of view so you don’t worry about the time while trying to fall asleep.
Have the right sunlight exposure.
Daylight is key to regulating daily sleep patterns. Try to get outside in natural sunlight for at least thirty minutes each day. If possible, wake up with the sun or use very bright lights in the morning. Sleep experts recommend that, if you have problems falling asleep, you should get an hour of exposure to morning sunlight and turn down the lights before bedtime.
Don't lie in bed awake.
If you find yourself still awake after staying in bed for more than twenty minutes or if you are starting to feel anxious or worried, get up and do some relaxing activity until you feel sleepy. The anxiety of not being able to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.
Source: NIH Medline Plus (Internet), Bethesda, MD: National Library of Medicine (US); summer 2012.
Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep.  Available here.
Please check back regularly for new content.