Rethink that all-nighter

US Army researchers are publishing study results in 'Sleep' that show a significant impairment of moral judgment after only two nights of 'disturbed or superficial sleep'. Sleep (a scientific journal, as well as a neglected necessity of life) is interested to see how this effect carries through other professions where judgment directly effects humanity - like medicine.

We've all seen the real and fictional trials of medical professionals who carry all their baggage under their eyes and make critical decisions backed by the unfaltering faith of patients and their loved ones. What would change if it could be proven that not only is concentration and memory effected, but that a lack of sleep slows decision making because the quality of moral beliefs declines?

I live in constant observation of a medical professional on the very leading edge of this dilemma... a medical resident. On 6 hours of sleep, he will venture into a 38 hour 'call' where sleep is measured in 10 minute segments a couple times a shift... if at all. While I don't claim to have any first hand knowledge of individual decisions he makes during these periods of time, I will share with you that prior to and following these shifts, decisions become a painful process of repetition and elimination.

"Do I eat something today, or sleep for ten minutes before the pager goes off?"
"Do I call my wife/parents/friends to tell them I'm alive or pay that overdue gas bill?"
"Do I do the laundry or take a shower?" (lets all do a collective 'yeeeesh' to that one)

Is this the state of mind that you want to be in while choosing medication or surgical treatment? How about guarding refugees?

I clearly remember a story related to me by a soldier who had recently participated in 'sleep deprivation exercises', and whose 'friend' experienced visions of at least four of Disney's seven dwarves running between the trenches ... I'm guessing Sleepy, Grumpy and Dopey were included. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes says that this hallucination is related to the I-function of the brain, integrating the input from all over the brain (speech centres, memory centres, etc).

The British journal 'Occupational and Environmental Medicine' has published findings that people driving after being awake for 17 to 19 hours performed worse than those whose blood alcohol level exceeds the legal limit for driving.

Your immune system is weakened; your ability to produce white blood cells decreases; growth hormone levels decline; blood sugar doesn't metabolize as well (aka - you become fat and/or diabetic)... and you die. Really. There is a study proclaiming that if a person gets less than four hours of sleep in every 24, they will die within six years; likely from a weakened immune system.

So, your entirely off the grid if you get less than 6 hours per night, according to every nations' scientific community. Though there may be a simple way to combat one of the primary causes: