Brain Post: Missing Two Hours of Sleep Equal to Having a 0.05 Blood Alcohol Level

{Everyday, SnowBrains.com is gonna bring you one “Brain” post. Something that we think will interest you, challenge you, and be something you can use in a dinnertime conversation that day.}

It feels like Dr. Mark Rosekind (PhD, president of Alertness Solutions, & former NASA scientist) might be pushing it a little bit here.  0.05 blood alcohol level is pretty high.  But, we’ve all been sleep deprived before and you do end up feeling a little drunk.  There’s no doubt about it.

“We know that sleep loss is going to create significant detriments in performance,” says Mark Rosekind, PhD, president of Alertness Solutions and a former NASA scientist. “There are lab studies that show that if you’re an eight-hour sleeper and you get six hours of sleep, that two-hour difference can impact your performance so that it equates to how you would perform if you had a 0.05 blood-alcohol level.” – WebMD.com

The article excerpted above goes on to explain how sleep habits of Olympic athletes benefit performance and how performance can be directly linked to sleep environment.  Here are a few more important notes from the article:

1.  Darkness – get your room very dark for better sleep

2.  Temperature – cool is better than warm for quality sleep

3.  Noise –  eliminate noise or drown it out with white noise

4.  Bed – this is obvious, have a comfy bed that fits you

5.  Good Alarm Clock – one you can trust so you aren’t waking up to check the time

The rest of this article is an interesting read. We all wanna perform our best on the hill.
Good sleep will result in good results, no matter what you’re doing each day.

Read the full article here:  How To Sleep Like an Olympian