Originally published February 21 2006
Study assesses the impact of sleep inertia on doctors' performances
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Professor Kenneth Wright from Colorado University led a study of how sleep inertia, which occurs when doctors try to catch up on sleep with short naps, can lower the performance of doctors and endanger patients.
The results could have implications for emergency service workers, who can be called on to perform critical tasks immediately after waking.
Team leader Professor Kenneth Wright from Colorado University, said that doctors who work 80 hour weeks and 'cat-nap' to catch up on sleep, could be prone to making simple mistakes when calculating doses of drugs.
"For a short period, at least, the effects of sleep inertia may be as bad as or worse than being legally drunk.
"We found that cognitive skills of test subjects were worse upon awakening than after extended sleep deprivation."
The researchers called for more stuides to measure the effects of nap interruption and "recovery sleep."
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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