40 Facts About Sleep

The National Sleep Research Project has posted an interesting list of 40 facts about sleep you might not know.

Things like:

The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.

A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year

REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have 75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term bubs. Similarly, a newborn kitten puppy rat or hampster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all.

Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.

While the list does not hold the key to making me able to stay up for sixty hours straight with the clarity that I have around the time I start work, it is still an interesting read.

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40 Facts About Sleep

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