Sleep Diagnostics Technology
Sleep Diagnostic Technology
Between homework, school activities, chores at home, hanging with friends and maybe even a part-time job, sleep almost seems like a luxury. Far from it. The proper quantity and quality of sleep helps us stay healthy. Sleep allows our bodies to rest and our brains to re-boot. Without proper sleep, people are more likely to perform poorly at work, get in accidents, become ill or, in extreme cases, stop breathing and die. Research increasingly is showing connections between poor and insufficient sleep and disease. Sleep Diagnostic Technology involves conducting sleep studies. The Allied Health professionals in this field also are called Polysomnographers.
Did You Know?
- Three of every four Americans do not believe they get enough sleep. Four of every 10 say lack of sleep has hurt their job.
- Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnea, which causes them to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and increases their risk heart attacks and strokes.
- Disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea can run in families.
- The idea that people need less sleep as they get older is a myth. Experts recommend 7 to 9 hours a night for the average adult.
- Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%
- Other primates, including chimps, rhesus monkeys and baboons, get about 10 hours of sleep.