Cause and Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Adults

(Bryant , et al . 462 . Loss of sleep also interferes with the body 's response to antibodies (Foster and Wulff 409

An individual 's pain threshold also undergoes changes as a result of sleep deprivation . Studies involving short-wave sleep deprivation showed a 24 percent decrease in musculoskeletal pain tolerance after three nights (Onen , Alloui , Gross , Eschallier and Dubray 36 Additionally , studies of sleep deprivation showed a decrease in pain sensitivity that correlated to the length of the sleep deprivation (Onen 35

Sleep deprivation also has effects on psychomotor skills , although the

br length of the deprivation influences whether those effects are negative While some studies have shown an improvement in word recall or psychomotor skills , the improvement is only shown after short-term sleep deprivation (Quigley , Green , Morgan , Idzikowski , and King 175 Typically , studies show a decrease in short-term memory recall and a loss of psychomotor performance , with sleep deprivation of only 24 hours having a similar effect to 1 mg of lorazepam , which is used to treat seizures , or 50 mg of chlorpromazine , an anti-psychotic (Quigley , et al 175

Psychomotor skills suffer from a decrease in vigilance , attention and reaction time due to sleep deprivation that is similar to the effects of alcohol . In one study of pediatric residents , researchers found that residents who worked 90 hours per week for one month , with a night shift every fourth or fifth month , showed the same decrease in psychomotor skills as if they had a blood-alcohol content , or BAC , of 0 .04 (Gavin In another study , drivers who had been awake for at least 17 hours performed worse than those who had a BAC of 0 .05 (CNN . Some studies have suggested that every 24 hour period without sleep causes a 25 to 30 percent decrease in performance (Caldwell et al . 694 . In an...