Barbara is a mother of three young teenagers. Every morning she turns off the alarm at 6 a.m. to get herself ready for work and her children ready for school. She has a full-time job, plus a part-time job to help make ends meet. When she leaves her full-time job, she often finds herself grocery shopping, taking her children to and from school activities, or running other errands. Several days a week she leaves one job and goes to her part-time job. By the time she ends her day (usually later than 10 p.m.), she is exhausted. On weekends, she tries to “catch up” on her sleep but finds this is not always possible.
Barbara’s story is typical of millions of Americans who find that they’re getting less sleep than they used to. Yet the body needs proper sleep to restore itself. All major bodily systems depend on sleep to function properly; lack of sleep can result in decreased immune response, cognitive function, and motor coordination (Weiner, 2010).
Fatigue-related human errors have been linked to many historic tragedies, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the NASA Challenger shuttle explosion. Examples like these show why it’s important to understand the biology of sleep and its connection to safety and quality of life (National Sleep Foundation, 2006).
THE SCOPE OF SLEEP DISORDERS
Since the beginning of recorded time, people have been plagued by sleep disorders. Hippocrates, the Greek physician, wrote about sleep often and used sleeping patterns to diagnose illness.