Sleep Deprivation

ATLANTA -- At the start of this century, Northern manufacturers who opened factories in the rural South discovered that to get production shifts started, they first had to teach new workers to arrive on time. The former sharecroppers didn't own watches and had timed their lives only by the rising and setting of the sun.To solve the problem, the boss would install a large clock in the town center and put a loud whistle on the factory roof to remind employees when to wake up.Today, employees have their own alarm clocks to rouse themselves in the dark.

The HCPSS board is researching the feasibility of later high school start times. This could have a great impact on many students around the county and I fully back this proposal. As a high school student, I can visibly see the effects of sleep deprivation on students. I am looking for an increase in support from the school board. Specifically, I would like to see the school board push high school start times to later than the current start time of 7:20 a.m. In studies done by the National Sleep Foundation, National Department of Transportation and Center Disease Control and Prevention, they found that only 31 percent of high school students reported getting a sufficient eight hours of sleep.

JERUSALEM -- Israel's Supreme Court has banned the use of sleep deprivation, violent shaking and other "physical pressure" in interrogations, a historic ruling that outlaws the decades-long treatment of Palestinian suspects by the security police in their fight against terrorism.While acknowledging Israel's "unceasing struggle for both its very existence and security," the nine-judge panel ruled yesterday that state investigators cannot use any means available to interrogate a suspected terrorist -- even if the suspect knows where a bomb is.Interrogation methods must be reasonable, if not always painless, the court said.

You think sports fans are superstitious? That baseball players have the corner on game-day rituals? I say they've got nothing on parents whose baby just slept through the night for the first time in weeks. After a couple of months of being solidly spoiled by several hours in a row of glorious sleep thanks to a sleeping baby, my husband and I were completely thrashed when he suddenly stopped sleeping more than a handful of hours at a stretch. And this continued for days and days, probably months if we calculated it (which trust me, we don't want to do)

The HCPSS board is researching the feasibility of later high school start times. This could have a great impact on many students around the county and I fully back this proposal. As a high school student, I can visibly see the effects of sleep deprivation on students. I am looking for an increase in support from the school board. Specifically, I would like to see the school board push high school start times to later than the current start time of 7:20 a.m. In studies done by the National Sleep Foundation, National Department of Transportation and Center Disease Control and Prevention, they found that only 31 percent of high school students reported getting a sufficient eight hours of sleep.

Half of Americans suffer bouts of insomnia or chronic sleep loss that could endanger their health, a panel of leading sleep disorder experts cautioned yesterday.Although many sleep-deprived Americans acknowledge feelings of irritability, apathy and lethargy, few realize that failing to catch enough shut-eye can lead to long-term health problems, some of which can be fatal."Sleep disorders and chronic sleep deprivation are America's worst, largest and costliest invisible [medical] problem," Dr. William Dement, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

Residents' sleep deprivation a danger True, spending money so docs in training can sleep seems exorbitant, but people outside medicine do not understand the toll sleep deprivation takes on health providers and patients. Most doctors in training toil in inner city hospitals and take care of the poor, who are far sicker than other patients when they arrive in hospitals. Decisions have to be made fast and procedures done quickly to save lives. Calm doctors with alert minds and steady hands make the difference between life and death for severely ill patients.

Just how long can Joseph C. Palczynski keep going? The answer, according to some doctors, may be several more days. People can function for extended periods if sleep-deprived, experts say, though they are likely to become more irritable and suspicious. But for someone suffering from bipolar disorder, going days with virtually no sleep can have disastrous consequences. Since the standoff in Dundalk began Friday night, Baltimore County police believe Palczynski has kept going with only occasional naps.

'Coercion' is just totalitarian torture Richard Saccone pooh-poohs all this needless talk about "torture" ("Confusing coercion with torture," Commentary, April 22). He speaks dismissively of water-boarding and of keeping "a terrorist awake 15 minutes past his bedtime." Mr. Saccone is either intentionally reading the torture memos selectively or confused about the difference between democracy and totalitarianism. Consider the following chilling parallels. In Stalinist Russia, sleep deprivation was regularly deployed against political prisoners.

SILVER SPRING - Army Col. Gregory Belenky pops a stick of "Stay Alert" gum and chomps it for an hour, ignoring the label on the camouflage wrapper that warns him not to chew the super-caffeinated military product for more than five minutes. What do you expect from the Army's chief sleep deprivation expert? He's tired. Since the war with Iraq began, the fatigue questions have kept this military psychiatrist's phone ringing at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Among the callers: the Army surgeon general's office, which recently requested several cases of "Stay Alert" - a sickly sweet gum that works like a giant coffee, only much faster.

All the presents have been opened; wrapping paper is strewn all over the house. The dog is wearing a large shiny bow, courtesy of the kids; while the cat has one end of a piece of curling ribbon hanging out of her mouth and the other end hanging out her … elsewhere. The joyful voices of happy children emanate from the next room. They're arguing over whose turn it is to play the new video game or hollering, "Quit it! Give me back my new (fill in the blank) or I'm gonna tell!" Good times.

In an era of high unemployment - and with many of the gainfully employed working too many hours because companies are either still downsizing or avoiding new hires - it would be helpful if the Maryland Court of Appeals allowed this question to be decided by a jury: Should an employer be held responsible when an overworked, sleep-deprived employee causes a terrible accident? That's the question at the center of a lawsuit that has been grinding through the state courts for a few years.

Nearly one in 20 Marylanders questioned about their sleep habits by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told researchers that they had nodded off or fallen asleep while driving at least once during the previous 30 days. The telephone survey, reported Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that 4.6 percent of the 3,910 Marylanders who participated in the study admitted dozing at the wheel. The rate was higher than that in eight of the 12 states surveyed.

Severe nightly episodes of interrupted breathing during sleep - commonly known as sleep apnea - double the risk of death for middle-age men, according to a new study being called the largest ever conducted on the disorder. Even men with moderate sleep apnea - anywhere from 15 to 30 instances of oxygen deprivation per hour - appear to be 45 percent more likely to die from any cause than those who have no nighttime breathing problems. As many as one in four men is believed to suffer from sleep apnea, researchers said, and many with less severe apnea may not even know they have it, even though it can dangerously decrease the oxygen in their bloodstream.

Residents' sleep deprivation a danger True, spending money so docs in training can sleep seems exorbitant, but people outside medicine do not understand the toll sleep deprivation takes on health providers and patients. Most doctors in training toil in inner city hospitals and take care of the poor, who are far sicker than other patients when they arrive in hospitals. Decisions have to be made fast and procedures done quickly to save lives. Calm doctors with alert minds and steady hands make the difference between life and death for severely ill patients.

'Coercion' is just totalitarian torture Richard Saccone pooh-poohs all this needless talk about "torture" ("Confusing coercion with torture," Commentary, April 22). He speaks dismissively of water-boarding and of keeping "a terrorist awake 15 minutes past his bedtime." Mr. Saccone is either intentionally reading the torture memos selectively or confused about the difference between democracy and totalitarianism. Consider the following chilling parallels. In Stalinist Russia, sleep deprivation was regularly deployed against political prisoners.

To sleep, perchance to dream? That is the quest of millions of people, but it's often unfulfilled.Insomnia and sleep deprivation are common afflictions. Many people have a hard time falling asleep, while others wake too early. Others find that travel to other time zones results in jet lag.We've had our own experiences with sleep deprivation. When we are finishing a book, the work always seems to take more time than we planned. The result is many late nights and early mornings.Toward the end of a project, we sometimes get only a few hours of sleep at a time, perhaps at five o'clock in the afternoon when hit by an uncontrollable urge to nap.While a brief nap may allow us to keep going, chronically depriving our bodies of sleep is not a good idea.

LATROBE, Pa. -- The Senate Judiciary Committee is to vote tomorrow on the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be attorney general, and some senators say they won't confirm him unless he defines waterboarding as torture. Perhaps Mr. Mukasey should have asked the senators to define torture first. Until they clarify the term, it is dangerous to discuss specific techniques used in interrogation. A usable definition has been blurred by those who insist on confusing the terms "coercive interrogation" and "torture."

LATROBE, Pa. -- The Senate Judiciary Committee is to vote tomorrow on the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be attorney general, and some senators say they won't confirm him unless he defines waterboarding as torture. Perhaps Mr. Mukasey should have asked the senators to define torture first. Until they clarify the term, it is dangerous to discuss specific techniques used in interrogation. A usable definition has been blurred by those who insist on confusing the terms "coercive interrogation" and "torture."

The alarm clock in Thom Stys' bedroom goes off at 4 a.m. every weekday, a scant four to five hours after his head hits the pillow. By 5 a.m., he's left his home, and before the sun is up, he's at his desk in Long Beach, Calif., making a round of phone calls to clients in Europe. "If I left later, it would take me an hour and a half to get to work," says the 57-year-old vice president of an aerospace forging company. "I simply can't afford to spend time caught up in freeway traffic." Most working blokes know that the more they work, the less they sleep.