After you put the last dinner dishes away and the evening news, you probably think about going to bed. But for the 40 million estimated Americans who suffer from a chronic sleep disorder, going to bed doesn’t necessarily mean going to sleep. And for the 20 to 30 million others who experience occasional sleep disturbances, nighttime isn’t a picnic.

Some researchers have postulated that the United States is the most sleep deprived country. And it’s no wonder. With 24-hour factories and malls, high stress levels at work, and round-the-clock schedules, Americans barely have time to breathe, much less sleep a good 8 hours every night.

Even when you want to sleep, the cares of the day sometimes keep you from closing your eyes. In fact, according to the National Sleep Foundation, on any given night, slightly more than 1-4 Americans rate the quality of their night’s sleep as either “fair” or “poor”

Of course, the Americans aren’t alone in their devotion to round-the-clock living. Scandinavians stay up quite late as a way of dealing with their midnight sun. and many Northern European countries have more shift workers than the United States, and their citizens tend to their coffee and more of it than Americans.

But maybe you don’t have a chronic sleep disorder. Perhaps you are just stressed out and your bedroom is too crowded and too hot, or your mattress too hard.

Sleep, Blessed Sleep
Perhaps you take the ability to sleep for granted, but for the estimated 40 million Americans who suffer from a sleep disorder, falling asleep and staying asleep doesn’t come so easily. A person with a sleep disorder usually sleeps poorly or not enough so they wake up lousy.

Too frequently sleep disorders go unrecognized, undiagnosed and untreated. The cost to individuals and to society is huge: more than 100,000 automobile accidents, many fatal, are directly attributed to sleep-deprived workers.

In addition, experts say that many on-the-job accidents are caused in part by poor decisions and responses made by sleep-deprived workers. Because sleep-deprived people tend to be irritable and have short fuses, they aren’t much fun to be around, which can profoundly affect both personal and work relationships

In addition, a lack of sleep adversely affects both memory and concentration, which can negatively influence a person’s job performance. And the list of problems caused by lack of sleep goes on and on

If you or your significant other, like a child, a family member or close friend has a problem sleeping, the first step is to identify the problem and to seek treatment as soon as possible. Remember, chronic sleep deprivation, no matter what the cause is dangerous and potentially fatal.

If you don’t get the sleep you need, you don’t restore and refresh your brain and body. You are basically running on empty.

Also sleeplessness can be torture. Interrogators commonly use sleep deprivation as part of the interrogation process designed to break and confuse prisoners (whether criminal, war or political) in order to extract information.

After being deprived of sleep, many people are ready to answer any question as long as they’ll be allowed to sleep. With little or no sleep, people feel sick. Their bodies are sluggish and uncoordinated, and their minds feel mush.

Their one overriding thought is their desire for sleep and even the most defiant individual may become quiet compliant if he thinks his cooperation can help him get sleep sooner, but since you are not a prisoner in future articles I will do my best in helping you get to sleep and give you tips and suggestions on how to get rid of your sleep deprivation once and for all

Written by Alvaro Castillo