America’s Cup fans should sleep in

Thursday, June 28, 2007

America’s Cup fans should sleep in

A sleep researcher says America’s Cup fans need to make sure they get enough sleep.

Dr Leigh Signal from Massey University’s Sleep/Wake Research Centre says, “It’s great that our team is doing well. Yachting fans can look after their health by making sure they get enough sleep.”

While the yacht races themselves take about two hours, weather conditions can delay the starts, sometimes for several hours after 1am NZ time.

“Reducing your sleep even for one night by three to four hours will affect how you feel and how you function,” Dr Signal says.

“If you are getting up night after night, the effects will accumulate. You will continue to feel sleepier and more irritable each day and your functioning will continue to decline.

“Sleep loss affects our ability to respond quickly, maintain attention, and perform cognitively complex tasks such as problem solving.”

She says if people get less sleep than they need over several days, the body's drive for sleep continues to increase. This raises the likelihood of microsleeps, where a person falls asleep for a few seconds at a time.

“It is therefore important to take care with tasks that might affect your safety or the safety of others. Driving is one example. If you feel sleepy you should not be driving.”

She advises people to get more sleep at other times, by going to bed earlier or sleeping in, or taking a nap at a another time during the day.

“Going to sleep earlier than normal can be difficult as our internal biological clock is telling us we should still be awake. However, if you are sleepy from getting less sleep over the past few days this is likely to be easier.”

ENDS

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